


Alien Taskforce

by TheSovereigntyofReality



Category: Doctor Who (2005), The Avengers (Marvel Movies)
Genre: Crossover, F/M, Not Avengers: Infinity War Part 1 (Movie) Compliant, Not S.H.I.E.L.D. Friendly, Not Steve Friendly, Not Thor: Ragnarok (2017) Compliant, Team Tony, The Doctor has a lot of companions, The Doctor saves planets, here is one of them, including ones we don't see
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2018-02-14
Updated: 2018-05-15
Packaged: 2019-03-18 01:27:52
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: Creator Chose Not To Use Archive Warnings, No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 14
Words: 28,498
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/13671399
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/TheSovereigntyofReality/pseuds/TheSovereigntyofReality
Summary: Just because S.H.I.E.L.D. and the Avengers didn't listen to Tony after the Battle of New York, it doesn't mean no one did.





	1. Only the UN Knows

**Author's Note:**

> **Disclaimer: If you recognise it from somewhere else, it isn't mine.**
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> It's an idea I've had for a while: The Doctor only has a few companions that _we_ see. How many more could he possibly have. I'll see how much of my Dani Headcannon gets into this story but I only started writing it.

S.H.I.E.L.D. completely disregarded the threat.

The UN didn’t. Following the Battle of New York, Tony had spoken of what he’d seen, and what was coming. S.H.I.E.L.D. had publically dismissed it, claiming the threat was dealt with. The public was more than willing to swallow that Tony Stark was just looking for more attention. But the public was not the UN.

A week later, Tony was summoned to the UN board, to further explain what he had seen through the portal. At the hearing – entirely private – there was a dark-haired woman with a small entourage. She sat in silence with the others and listened to his testimony.

When he was done, the chairman turned to her. ‘What do you make of this, Mrs. Singe?’

Tony looked over. The woman stood up and walked down as she began speaking. ‘I find this entirely likely. The Chitauri are an army for hire and little more. You want to invade or destroy a civilisation and they’ll do it for a small fee. Whoever paid them is still out there – hasn’t even been touched. I would like a look at that sceptre, to be honest; see how it took control of someone’s mind. Unfortunately, S.H.I.E.L.D. has disappeared it to parts unknown.’

‘So we are under threat of invasion?’ the chairman asked.

‘Very much so.’ Mrs. Singe turned to him. ‘Mr. Stark, my name is Dani Singe. I head the Kaias Foundation. I am offering a cooperation to deal with the problem.’

Turned out S.H.I.E.L.D. didn’t know _everything_. The Kaias Foundation was known only to the British Royal Family and the United Nations. They were far more suited to dealing with alien invasion than S.H.I.E.L.D. ever was. Tony’s first clue to their true nature was in that the base was located at the deepest point of the Atlantic Ocean, sitting right on the ocean floor – and that was a marvel of engineering in itself.

The second was the agents themselves.

‘So you’re aliens yourselves?’ Tony watched a blue-skinned woman pass by as Dani Singe led him through the base.

‘Yup,’ Dani said. ‘It was my idea, but I needed help setting it up. Everyone here is a refugee. Provided they just want to live their lives, they can join Kaias and that’s their employment and they’re left alone.’

‘Like a work visa,’ Tony mused.

‘Exactly like a work visa.’

Tony nodded. He waited a moment, and then he asked the question that had been plaguing him since he realised the UN was listening. ‘Why did the UN believe me when S.H.I.E.L.D. didn’t?’

‘S.H.I.E.L.D.’s an intelligence agency that fancies itself Earth’s last line of defence against alien threat,’ Dani said.

Tony scoffed. Fury hadn’t been very secretive about that belief. But then there was this place. It was made up of aliens who had come from out there, and knew what was out there; what was a threat and what wasn’t. They knew the technology, they knew the varieties of species. _This_ was Earth’s last line of defence.

Dani’s lips tugged upwards in a smirk. ‘In ’69, the UN formed their own alien defence taskforce, which we often work with: the United Nations Intelligence Taskforce. UNIT. They had two advantages over S.H.I.E.L.D. One: they had branches in every UN country. Two: one of their chief scientific advisors was an alien himself. The same man who raised me – which is how I got in. One thing he always told me: humans have an unmatched capacity for self-delusion.’

Tony lifted his eyebrows. ‘Self-delusion?’

‘Humans like to feel safe,’ Dani said, leading him through a door and down a corridor. ‘If they can’t do that, they act like a bunch of paranoid schitzes, like how they treat Dr. Banner. It’s a big part of why Kaias is secret. Humans, as a general rule of thumb, will ignore threats they can’t see. The UN is aware of the fact that there are over two hundred invasion attempts on the Earth every year.’

‘That many?’ Tony asked. ‘And Kaias and UNIT are the ones that deal with it?’

‘Yeah, we let S.H.I.E.L.D. have some from time-to-time. For instance, they can keep the Asgardians.’ There was a little quirk to her lips.

‘I take it Thor and his bunch aren’t that highly regarded in this neck of the woods,’ Tony said, a little amused at the idea. Thor had seemed like little more than a big kid to him. Sure, Tony acted irresponsible, but it’d been a while since he really was. Thor had also given off the air of someone who thought he was superior to all those around him – specifically, the humans.

‘Well, look around. Why would they be? Their society hasn’t budged an inch in 2000 years.’ Dani chuckled. ‘Yet they insist they’re the most superior race in all nine realms. They’re a laughing stock to us.’

‘What about the super strength?’ Tony asked.

‘One of the most common advantages people get,’ Dani said. ‘It’s very basic to be honest. I’ve got it, Sark’s got it. About 85% of his division have it.’

‘So it’s no big deal?’ Tony asked.

‘No, it’s more or less something that pops up every now and again, like red hair.’ As Dani passed someone, she was handed a short metal tube. She hit a button and a holographic screen appeared. ‘Not only that, but Rogers doesn’t seem to be very responsible with his strength.’

Tony looked at her curiously. ‘What do you mean?’

‘When I first met humans, I wasn’t allowed near them until I learned to moderate my hand pressure. What I considered a gentle grab could crush their fingers. The way Rogers knocked your arm away…well, let’s just say that bruise ain’t from the fight.’

Tony frowned and rolled up his sleeve. The bruise she was talking about was yellow by now but, now that he thought about it, that was _exactly_ where Steve had knocked his arm down. The way Dani was putting it, he should have had enough control not to inflict harm on him.

‘Well, we were all pretty cranky.’

‘That’s not an excuse,’ Dani said. ‘I can control my strength when I’m angry.’ She paused. ‘Of course I have a “just don’t touch anyone” philosophy. Most of us do. I saw the footage of Rogers when he lost his temper. I’d say he’s predisposed to use his strength and size to his advantage.’ She shook her head. ‘For crying out loud, he towered over you while belittling you a few hours after meeting you.’

‘…Never thought of it like that.’

Dani nodded. ‘I guess you heard the stories from your old man, but you’ve gotta remember that he thought Rogers was dead. He was trying to remember the good things about him. He wasn’t going to start talking about the bad things. Besides, they only knew each other for a period of roughly two years. Most of that time, they didn’t even see each other. Howard designed his suit and made his shield and flew him places from time to time when no one else would, but they didn’t really know each other that well.’

That made sense, Tony guessed. His dad was trying to remember a “dead” man in the best light possible. ‘Don’t speak ill of the dead.’

‘Yup.’ Dani tapped a panel on the wall and her fingerprint lit up. The door slid open. Tony was led into a room. There was a conference table with several people around it. Judging from their uniforms, Tony guessed they were commanders from various branches of UNIT. ‘Well, we’re all here now.’ She proceeded to introduce them. ‘Dr. Tony Stark, Col. Berit Klausen. Maj. Olena Ivanov. Lt. Col. Ji Mun. Captain Arjun Mishra. Col. Husni Alfasi. Lt. Brigadier Julien Baudin. Maj. Conrad Arbeit. Maj. Patrick Harker. Lt. Brigadier Kate Stewart.’

Tony shook their hands as he was introduced to them, like a good little businessman. As he did, he took note of them. Four women and five men. Dani then showed him to his seat. She sat down at the head of the table so she was clearly the chairman of this little meeting.

‘All right,’ she said. ‘I call for this meeting to be in session. Dr. Stark, if you could start us off with your eyewitness testimony of what you saw on the other side of the portal in New York?’

Once again, Tony told his story. This time, he had the undivided attention of UNIT, who could actually do something about it. When he finished, attention turned to the head of the table again. Dani stood up and clapped. A map of the world appeared behind her. Two dots blinked – one in the Himalayas and one in a small region off the Baltic Sea.

Dani moved from in front of the map. ‘Following this issue, I sent a party up to speak with the Galactic Council and discovered that Thanos is gathering the Infinity Stones. I realised that Loki’s sceptre had one of these stones inside of it. The Mind Stone, as evidenced by its effect on S.H.I.E.L.D. Agents Barton and Selvig. Thanos is a tyrant in this part of the universe. He’s nicknamed “the Mad Titan”. For reasons as yet unknown, he goes to various planets and by the time he’s done everything living on that planet is dead.’

‘And what, precisely, are the Infinity Stones?’ Maj. Arbeit asked.

‘Six extremely powerful stones that are said to hold malevolent entities inside of them,’ Dani said. ‘Each stone has a different set of powers. The Mind Stone can twist, control, and manipulate the mind. The Time Stone,’ she pointed to the dot on the Himalayas, ‘can manipulate time. That Infinity Stone, though, has been held and protected by an order called the Masters of the Mystic Arts for centuries. They channel energy in a way that looks like magic. They even call it magic, but I prefer to think of it as energy manipulation.’

There were several chuckles around the table.

Dani went on. ‘The Masters of the Mystic Arts typically protect this plane from interdimensional threats. I went to them with the problem of the missing sceptre. The Infinity Stones emit a particular energy which they allowed me to scan from the Time Stone so I could find the Mind Stone.’

Maj. Ivanov frowned. ‘So why is the Mind Stone in Sokovia?’

‘Sokovia?’ Captain Mishra asked.

Maj. Ivanov nodded and pointed. ‘It’s a tiny little country just next to Russia. The only thing about it worth noting is that it’s currently embroiled in a civil war.’

‘Yeah.’ Dani looked at the dot as if it’d personally offended her. ‘Turns out Director Fury’s a bigger idiot than I thought. Somehow,’ the word dripped with sarcasm, ‘the staff went from Fury’s possession into HYDRA’s. That right there is a HYDRA base.’

‘Infiltration?’ Lt. Brigadier Stewart asked.

‘Most likely,’ Dani said. ‘Fury’s certainly cocky enough for it.’

‘What about a retrieval team?’ Lt. Col. Mun asked. ‘Can we send one in?’

Tony frowned. ‘The main problem there is that the Mind Stone affects anyone who comes in proximity with it.’

‘That sounds about right,’ Dani remarked. ‘I wouldn’t worry. I’ve got some species in here that are resistant and some who are immune to the kind of mental manipulation that thing puts out.’

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> I will point out, I don't know anything about the Chitauri in the Marvel Universe, so I made up my own headcannon for them.
> 
> I should point out that Dani's team were devised for my Doctor Who fanfics, and before I got into Iron Man, so a few of the names are actually just coincidence and I didn't see the point of changing them for one story.
> 
> I'll aim to update every Wednesday, but I can't make promises. :)


	2. Calling Out

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Dani begins her preparations, including getting a date.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Like I said in the notes of the previous chapter, some names are a coincidence. I will differentiate how I write the names where they are the same so you can tell which is which. ;)

Dani was signing off on the last of the tests. Her agents had called and reported they had the staff – and something more. The knock on her door, if she wasn’t mistaken, was them bringing in that something more. Dani put her pen down and leaned back as the door opened and two people in their early twenties were led in. Maz, head of the psychic division, had both of them by the shoulders. Three more agents followed.

‘What have we got?’ Dani asked.

‘These two appear to be enhanced with the Mind Stone,’ Maz said. ‘This girlie, here, tried a 452 on Mayr.’

‘Hm.’ Dani eyed the girl and stood up. She walked around her desk. ‘You know some societies will put you to death for that, right?’

The girl glared at her.

‘You gonna tell me who you are?’ Dani looked between them. Neither said anything. ‘No? Okay. Maz?’

‘Wanda and Pietro Maximoff,’ Maz said. ‘They’re twins who were orphaned in 2001 when a couple of stray bombs hit their apartment building.’

Wanda shot a venomous look over at Maz. ‘We waited two days for Tony Stark to kill us!’

Dani pulled a face. Maz rolled her eyes but continued. ‘They were approached at a protest rally a few months ago and volunteered for experiments with the Mind Stone.’

‘HYDRA?’

‘Naturally.’

Dani looked between the two of them. ‘Why did you volunteer?’

‘Tony Stark killed our parents!’ Wanda hissed. ‘He deserves to die!’

Dani blinked at her. She held her gaze for a full minute before turning to Pietro. ‘Are you loony too, or can you give me an intelligible explanation?’

‘When our parents were killed there was a Stark Industries bomb there,’ Pietro said. He went to go on, but Dani held up a hand.

‘How do you know that?’

‘It sat there for two days…’ He trailed off.

Dani knew why. The expression on her face was one Tony had nicknamed the WTF-murder-face – brow flat, eyes hooded in incredulity, lips curly with a bit of teeth showing. It was apparently quite unsettling to look at. ‘So you’re telling me that a Stark Industries bomb – a company with a 99% product quality rate – did not explode? And that 99 is only because they don’t want to give anybody 100%. You’re telling me the world’s greatest engineer built a bomb, specifically to kill a couple of kids for no reason, and then it didn’t explode?’

‘You’re defending him?’ Wanda hissed.

‘Yes, I bloody well am!’ Dani glared at her. As humans weren’t used to looking at irisless eyes, the glare became ten times scarier that a human glare. ‘Because it makes no sense. Tony’s company built the damn things, yes, but he stopped weapons production when he discovered that someone was illegally selling his stock behind his back – in 2008!’ She glared at them both. ‘And, another thing. Isn’t your country in the middle of a civil war? Bloody hell! You’re not unique! There are thousands of kids all over the country that got orphaned by stray artillery just like you! You don’t see them volunteering for highly questionable experimentation.’

Wanda’s eyes suddenly got watery. ‘You don’t understand,’ she whimpered. ‘Our parents died and we were trapped with Stark’s bomb!’

Dani gave her the blandest look she could muster. ‘Wanda, I have a four-year-old. Do you really think I haven’t seen crocodile tears before?’

Wanda drew back, surprised. The tears were gone.

‘That’s better.’ Dani looked between them, having already made her decision. They had volunteered to be HYDRA lab rats in order to get the power to take unjustified revenge on a man who, frankly, suffered enough as it was. He didn’t need this shit on top of it. She took the data-rod Maz handed her and flicked it open. ‘Increased metabolism and improved homeostasis. Neuro-electric interfacing, telekinesis, mental manipulation.’ She eyed Wanda but spoke to Maz. ‘Competency level?’

‘Sufficient,’ Maz said. ‘However, she’s got a temper and she’s constantly projecting her hatred of Tony Stark outwards. It’s been bouncing against my mental shields ever since we found them. A person without mental shields, such as 90% of this planet’s native population, would be influenced by it to everything back to…what’s that phrase?’

‘Everything back to the original sin?’ Dani asked.

‘Yes, that.’ Maz nodded. ‘I honestly have never encountered something so toxic in my life.’

‘For you, that’s saying something.’ Dani looked them over. She then reached over and hit a button. ‘Head office to science division. Calling Division Leader.’

The transparent screen popped up to her left and the face of the Handiconean appeared. ‘Science Division receiving.’

‘Jarvis, we have two human mutates here who went after their powers for revenge against Tony Stark – the lethal variety.’

‘What’s their problem?’

Wanda opened her mouth.

‘I didn’t ask you!’ Jarvis snapped at her.

Dani chuckled at the offended look on her face. ‘One of Stane’s backdoor deals, apparently. And apparently they’re still operating under the juvenile presumption that if it has your name on it, it belongs to you.’

Wanda just about hissed.

‘Their powers are to be stripped…’

‘You can’t do that!’ Wanda screeched and yanked free from the man holding her wrists. Red mist gathered around her hands and shot out at Dani.

Dani raised an eyebrow and waited. The red mist only got to an inch from her face before it suddenly went back the way it came. Wanda screamed as she was hit square in the face. Her guard stepped to the side. Wanda sailed back and slammed into the wall. As she hit the ground, she grabbed her bleeding nose. Pietro twisted around and stared in horror.

‘As I was saying,’ Dani continued. ‘Their powers are to be stripped. They will then be psychologically evaluated and shipped to a mental health facility – preferably in the Baltic region.’ As Wanda was hauled up from the floor and handcuffed this time, and the two were led out, Dani addressed them. ‘When you grow up, we might return your powers. Or we might not.’

 **Darillium**  
Blue eyes watched the events on the screen in front of him. The man patted the console following the attempted attack on Dani. ‘Atta girl.’ The hum around him changed in pitch.  
The man watched as Dani walked around her desk, unphased, and sat down again. She’d done very well. Maz, who was from Paera if he wasn’t mistaken, waited until her agents had walked the twins out before stepping closer to the desk. She frowned in concern. ‘We can’t force them to undergo correctional therapy.’

‘No, but they can be put away as a danger to society,’ Dani said. ‘Some places in that area do still do that. I mean, look how far they went to try and kill a man who was only remotely connected to their parents’ deaths. Even humans would consider that extremely dangerous, and they wouldn’t want people who engaged in that behaviour out by themselves.’

That was true. They’d look at what they had done and, quite reasonably, be concerned about what they _would_ do in future.

Maz nodded and walked out. For a moment, Dani was quiet. Then she looked at her computer screen. She took a deep breath and stood up. ‘I know you’re watching, boss. I may as well take the opportunity. There are currently two Infinity Stones on Earth and Thanos is advancing on the planet. We’re doing what we can, but it may not be enough. While there is a possibility we’ve found a way to stop the Stones he already has, we haven’t fully tested it yet. In the 1960s, Howard Stark reverse-engineered the Tesseract and developed the Arc Reactor and Tony Stark miniturised that in 2008, but you knew that. When Thanos’s lackey around this time tried to use the Mind Stone on Tony, the miniturised Reactor in the way seems to have interrupted the signal. As I said, we haven’t been able to prove anything, but Arc Reactor technology may work as an effective shield. I’d like to get this done before he gets here though. At the very least, could you send me his ETA?’

That wasn’t too much to ask. Given the circumstances it was also something of an imperative. If Thanos was coming for Earth, then it was important to know when he would arrive. Maybe he could even stop him from arriving. Still, Dani was right. It was best to prepare for every eventuality.

The man moved around his console.

 **Earth**  
Fury scowled at the computer screen.

They’d been relying on Stark for funds and housing for the Avengers. But he had pulled back entirely. When Fury had called him to actually do what they wanted him to, Stark had responded with “I’m just a consultant, remember?” and walked away, with Banner.

Looked like he’d have to put Romanoff on it.

***

Bruce followed Tony through the Kaias Base.

He had to say, he liked this place a heck of a lot more than S.H.I.E.L.D.’s idea of a base. It made a lot more sense that the Earth should be defended from aliens by aliens. They actually knew what was out there – and they’d be more likely to be able to communicate in the tongues of the other races so they knew if they were looking at invasion, or something else.

It was amusing, really. S.H.I.E.L.D. was evidently a lot less powerful than they thought they were. If Fury ever found out about this place, the look on his face alone would be worth it. However, Bruce could fully understand why they kept this place secret, even from S.H.I.E.L.D.

Dani was also a lot easier to get along with.

Currently, she was approaching them, talking amicably to a curly-haired blonde woman who looked human. Dani grinned as she saw them and led the woman over to them. ‘I expect you’ve heard of these two guys,’ she said to the woman as she did so.

Tony snorted in amusement, probably due to Dani’s method of introducing them.

The woman gave a wide smile. ‘Of course.’

Dani grinned. ‘Tony, Bruce, this is River Song. She’s an archaeologist from the 51st century, sorta.’

‘Sorta?’ Bruce asked.

River chuckled. ‘I live in the 51st century, most of the time, I was born in the 52nd, my parents are from this century, and I grew up in the 20th century.’

Dani gave a cheesy grin. ‘Ain’t time travel great?’ She wiped the grin away. ‘She’s also half Time Lady so we’ve got the Laws of Time down pat.’

‘So, either way, you know what is about to happen,’ Tony said. ‘Out of interest, is there a historical reason most of that pack of idiots didn’t believe me?’

‘Yes, there is,’ River said. ‘If you boil it down, these people believe in their own hype far too much. Their actions over the course of their lifetimes show that they consider themselves, consciously or unconsciously depending on who you’re referring to, to be better than the average man on the street. You two would have never fit into that group – you consider the average man on the street better than you. Your recorded actions already speak of that.’

Bruce and Tony looked at each other. She had a point.

‘Even Cap thinks he’s better than the average man on the street?’ Tony asked. ‘Dad said he used to call himself “the little guy from Brooklyn”.’

River smiled, in a kind sort of way. ‘This is the last era where Steve Rogers is considered a hero. After this era ended, we start looking at him more critically. Rogers has a history of getting away with violent behaviour. His claim that he is “a little guy from Brooklyn” shows a startling lack of self-awareness. I wouldn’t call him “little”, but his behaviour has not changed. He would pick fights because he believed himself to be in the right. The serum they used on him enhanced everything. Not just his physical state, but also his personality traits. He showed signs of pigheadedness before the serum, such as picking fights with people who were bigger and stronger than him over disagreements and then refusing to back down with the statements that they were bullies, and repetitively illegally trying to enlist for the army despite being a known carrier of tuberculosis because he thought fighting was the only important job. What do you suppose he’d be like now?’

Tony pressed his lips together and nodded.

Dani held out a data-stick. ‘River’s come to tell us when we can expect Thanos. Her husband’s currently looking into it to see if he can stop the prick from getting here but just in case...’ She shrugged.

Tony took the stick and activated it. ‘What’s your husband do?’

‘He’s a traveller that saves planets on a fairly regular basis,’ River said. ‘And he favours the Earth in particular.’

‘Lucky us,’ Tony remarked.

‘You can thank Ian and Barbara Chesterton for that,’ Dani remarked. ‘Now, about the Arc Reactor shields?’

‘They’re ready for testing,’ Bruce said.

‘Good. I’ll have Maz bring the sceptre.’ Dani turned to River. ‘You wanna watch?’

‘Sure.’

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Personally, I favour 9 but in this case (and for reasons of my own vindication) 12 seemed like a better option for this story.


	3. The S.H.I.E.L.D. Data-Dump

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> It's 2014, and there is suddenly a distraction from preparations for the invasion.
> 
> Dani gets it now.

**2014**  
Dani sat at her desk, thumb and forefinger pressed to the bridge of her nose.

It was times like this she understood why the Doctor had used phrases like “stupid apes” and “pudding brains”. The first person she’d called, upon the data dropping online, was Tony. Then she’d called Sarah Jane so she could get Mr. Smith onto damage control for the endangered civilians. A few more phone calls and then she made the final one. Now, she waited.

When she heard the distinctive sound, she asked. ‘Hey, Jack. What’s the absolute height of stupidity?’

Captain Jack Harkness looked over at the date-and-time clock in her office. ‘The 2014 Intelligence Data Dump?’

Dani dropped her hand. ‘So it’s a recorded historical event? Fantastic.’ The word dripped with sarcasm.

‘Didn’t you grow up in the TARDIS?’

‘Yeah, but I don’t remember absolutely everything. Even the Doctor doesn’t remember everything he knows.’

Jack chuckled and walked around to the computer screen. ‘My God, this is a mess.’

‘Not as bad as it could have been.’ Dani rolled her neck. ‘You hear about the Maximoff kids?’

‘Nope,’ Jack said. ‘What happened?’

Dani told him. At the end, the immortal’s head was on her desk.

‘You okay?’ Dani asked.

‘Tell me you stripped their powers and shipped them off for correctional therapy,’ Jack muttered.

‘I did,’ Dani said. ‘Pietro’s responding to it, but I have the feeling that Wanda’s entire identity comes from that perceived slight.’

Jack lifted his head. ‘What’d you tell Stark?’

‘Uh, that they existed, and they were unbalanced, so I stripped their powers and shipped them to a psychiatric facility.’ She shrugged. ‘He doesn’t need to know that they hated him in particular, and especially not the reasons thereof.’

‘You don’t think he could handle it,’ Jack stated.

‘Well, what were Tony’s three predominant emotions in his lifetime?’ Dani mused.

Jack had known her long enough to know where this was going. ‘Compassion, guilt, and frustration.’

Amazing what brain scans _would_ be capable of just thirty years from now. Dani nodded. ‘If Tony knew why the twins hated him, irrational and illogical as it is, he would still feel guilty for it. The man feels guilty enough as it is, for things he has absolutely no control over. Why give him more?’

Jack gave her a slow smile. ‘You really are the Doctor’s ward.’

‘Yeah, speaking of, I need you to go and help Marvel detain Barnes.’

Jack raised an eyebrow.

‘Well, it was never explicitly stated _how_ Tony found out that his parents were murdered by the Winter Soldier, just that he found out in 2014 and that Rogers and Romanoff thought he was oblivious until 2015 when they were found out for withholding the information.’

‘Oh, yeah.’ Jack smirked. ‘You’ve already told him, haven’t you?’

‘No!’ Dani saw the look Jack was giving her. ‘Okay, yeah, kinda. I said it really fast after I told him about the data-dump. I don’t think Tony caught it but JARVIS, the AI, certainly did. He called me up later to clarify what I’d said. He’s gonna restate it later with Tony’s friends in the room with him so Tony has emotional support for that particular bombshell.’

‘Good idea.’ Jack stood up from where he’d taken her chair. ‘Well, we better get on with it then.’

***

Bruce watched as Tony worked.

When JARVIS had repeated what Dani had shot through saying, Tony had frozen up. Bruce, Happy, Rhodey, and Pepper had to calm Tony down as he’d gone through a small breakdown. This had been followed by Tony holing himself up in his lab for several days.

Bruce had been living in the Tower for two years, so he knew that was all right; it was Tony’s way of dealing. They just had to make sure he ate and slept. Rhodey, meanwhile, went with a friend of Dani’s to pick up Barnes. When she introduced them, she’d given a fair warning.

_‘He’s a 51st century guy. If you look vaguely compatible, he will flirt with you.’_

Apparently, she hadn’t been kidding.

Barnes had willingly surrendered and, once he’d heard Tony’s name, he’d remembered killing Howard and Maria Stark. He confessed to it. He was able to tell the authorities, in graphic detail, how he’d killed them. There were three people who had been in charge at the time, and Barnes had given their names. One was dead and one had vanished. The one who actually gave the order, though, Vasily Karpov, was currently living in Cleveland, Ohio and he’d been arrested.

Tony had to give permission for his parents’ bodies to be exhumed, and he came out in time for that one. When he did, the forensic scientists found evidence of violence on their remains that matched what Barnes had reported he’d done to them. Any doubt that had been there before was gone now.

After Tony seemed to have calmed down sufficiently (stopped shaking, stopped having flashbacks, and the nightmares died off enough for him to sleep through the night), Bruce decided to ask. ‘Dani would have known when she first met you.’

‘Before that, I’d say,’ Tony said. ‘I wouldn’t be surprised if she learned it as historical fact when she was a kid.’

‘So why didn’t she say anything until the data-dump?’ Bruce asked.

Tony sighed. ‘The Laws of Time. She explained them to me pretty early on. If she knows something is going to happen a certain way, she can’t get it done a different way. If she did, she’d risk creating a wound in time. If that happened, it’s an open-invitation for the Reapers.’

‘Reapers?’ Bruce asked.

Tony nodded. ‘That’s where we get the word. Real reapers live outside of time. When a wound in time is created, they come to sterilise the wound by consuming everything inside.’

‘Us?’ Bruce asked.

‘Us.’ Tony sighed. ‘Seems like a pretty good reason for keeping your mouth shut.’

Bruce nodded. There must’ve been a lot of rules attached to time travel, otherwise there would be the constant fear of raining that down on people’s heads. Bruce and Tony turned back to their work. However, it wasn’t long until JARVIS, who’d been monitoring Rogers and Romanoff, spoke up.

‘Sir, Dr. Banner, it seems Captain Rogers and Agent Romanoff have just decided to come to the Tower to...invite you to hunt down HYDRA.’

‘That’s hardly our job, is it?’ Tony turned to Bruce. ‘I mean, seriously, did I come crying to you guys when I had to deal with the Mandarin?’

Bruce who along with Tony had been allowed by Dani to read some of the futuristic records on Steve, which were far less glowing than the current ones, shook his head. ‘It’s probably more that they worked out they won’t be able to afford looking for Barnes on their own.’

Dani’s records indicated that Steve and Natasha, at this point were, “self-involved to the point that they were completely blindsided by the first piece of international human mutate legislation set before them”. Upon seeing that, Tony had asked and it turned out, following the DC disaster, the UN had thrown themselves into drafting a piece of legislation for the enhanced community.

On Dani’s request, UNIT had managed to secure Tony, Rhodey, and their new friend (new to him and Tony) Captain Carol Danvers a place on the negotiations. Bruce had declined the invitation because he didn’t know an awful lot about politics and he was nervous about being in the room with so many international diplomats. He was content to wait until the first draft was finished before adding in his two cents.

Tony nodded. ‘We’ll meet them in the penthouse, J.’

‘Very well, sir.’

The two of them left the lab and stepped into the lift.

‘Should be interesting,’ Tony mused.

‘What should?’ Bruce asked.

‘According to Dani, and she hasn’t been wrong once yet, Rogers and Natashalie are fully aware of what happened to my parents. They haven’t told me anything yet. They have no intention to – that’s why Dani did. Should be interesting to see if they say anything or not.’

***

As soon as they stepped into the Tower, JARVIS spoke up. ‘Good afternoon, Captain Rogers, Agent Romanoff. Please state the reason for your visit.’

Steve looked confused. ‘Computers,’ Natasha muttered to him in explanation before speaking in a loud and clear voice so the receivers could register it. ‘We’ve come to see Tony and Dr. Banner.’

‘Sir and Dr. Banner are in the penthouse,’ JARVIS said.

That was a surprise. Natasha would have expected them to be in the lab.

‘Please proceed to the elevator and I will transport you to the penthouse,’ JARVIS said.

As they went to the elevator and then waited for it to ascend to the penthouse, Natasha considered JARVIS. When she’d first heard of him, Fury had described him as a way for Tony to get out of hiring a new butler. Apparently, Starks had a history of working in solitude and finding other people around to be distractions.

At least, Howard Stark hadn’t liked people around him while he was working.

At first, Natasha had assumed JARVIS calling Tony “sir” was another ego-trip. But Fury had told her that, to Edwin Jarvis, Howard Stark had always been “sir” and Tony Stark had been “young sir”. So it was more likely a comfort cushion of some kind. Steve was silent the whole ride up.

The doors opened to the penthouse. Steve stepped out first and Natasha followed. Tony and Bruce were off to the side of the room, leaned over a computer screen.

‘Tony, Bruce.’ Steve headed over to them.

‘Hey, Cap,’ Tony said. ‘So what brings you to this neck of the woods?’

Natasha frowned as Steve walked forward and explained how they needed all the Avengers to track down and deal with HYDRA. After the Battle of New York, the plan had been for Tony to financially support the Avengers and design all their gear. Tony, though, had been forthcoming with _none_ of it. He seemed to throw himself into some other project. No one knew what, and they didn’t particularly care.

‘You want us to what?’ Tony asked in a flat voice.

Natasha rolled her eyes. ‘HYDRA isn’t something to scoff at, Tony. They nearly killed 700 thousand people, including the two of you.’

‘With a computer program,’ Bruce pointed out. ‘Is there a particular reason you didn’t call Tony for that?’

Natasha clenched her jaw but quickly concealed it. The reason was that she didn’t like Tony. He already bragged about the New York thing. She didn’t want to give him more fuel for his ego. She could hardly say that though. Then Steve opened his mouth and said something worse.

‘We didn’t have time.’

Natasha knew that was a bad idea before Tony quirked his eyebrow and he and Bruce looked at each other.

‘But you had time to wait for the Helicarriers to get in the air before you attacked?’ Tony asked.

Annoyance shot through Natasha. That was true, much as she hated to admit it. If they had time to wait for the Helicarriers to move, they surely had time to pick up a phone and make a single phone call. Rogers had no concept of what sounded good, though. He had no brain-to-mouth filter so he then went with,

‘We weren’t sure who we could trust.’

Tony and Bruce gave him the most sceptical looks she’d ever seen on either on their faces.

‘Listen,’ Natasha took over the conversation, ‘HYDRA hid and infiltrated society for 70 years. They’re not the sort of thing that can just be brushed off. They’re terrorists—’  
Bruce interrupted her. ‘So let counter-terrorism deal with it.’

Steve shook his head. ‘They wouldn’t be able to. We’re the only ones who can. We need to step up and protect the people.’

Tony then studied Steve, almost unsettlingly. ‘Is there something else you want to tell me?’

‘No,’ Steve looked puzzled. ‘We’ve told you everything.’

Tony and Bruce looked at each other again.

‘Right,’ Tony said. ‘So, you want to assemble the Avengers – who were created to be a last resort, by the way – to pre-emptively hunt down all the HYDRA bases in the world because HYDRA is just that dangerous.’

Well, looked like he was finally getting it.

‘Yes,’ Steve said, looking relieved.

Tony quirked an eyebrow, and Natasha suddenly got the suspicion this wasn’t going to be as easy as she’d hoped. Tony confirmed it with his next words. ‘Worse even than AIM?’  
Oh, of course. The Mandarin. Tony would turn this into a contest. ‘They were ordinary humans.’

‘Nope.’ Tony popped the p at the end. ‘Most of them were pyrokinetic.’

Natasha was about to brush it off when she saw Bruce nodding, an amused look on his face. She changed her argument. ‘Well, you had the armour.’

Tony imitated a buzzer to indicate a wrong answer. ‘Suit was out of commission throughout most of that. And they burned right through the War Machine armour. You can ask Rhodey if you don’t believe me.’

He had to be making that up. If Tony had to fight pyrokinetics without the armour, he’d be dead. Tony was just an ordinary human!

‘You two might want to leave, because we’re not interested,’ Tony said.

‘We’re heroes!’ Steve insisted, drawing himself up to his full height and looking down at them disapprovingly. ‘We—’

‘Heroes?’ Tony clapped. Several holographic screens appeared behind him. All of them showing coroner reports. ‘These people were all part of your little data-dump. That was an exercise in stupidity. You got all of them killed, and I’ve spent the last two weeks coordinating to help clean up your mess.’

‘They were HYDRA,’ Steve stated firmly.

‘12% of S.H.I.E.L.D. were HYDRA.’ Tony shot it right back at him. ‘The rest were true S.H.I.E.L.D. agents, their families, and civilians that were under S.H.I.E.L.D.’s eye. With their data out where anyone could see it, 42% of them have already been captured or killed. Most of them had no idea why they were grabbed.’

‘And who’s responsible for that?’ Bruce pointed at them.

‘Needless to say, the ones we have extracted aren’t very happy with you,’ Tony said. ‘And what are you doing? Completely ignoring it, justifying yourselves, and running around trying to hunt down HYDRA on some personal mission.’ Tony’s eyes narrowed and Natasha suddenly saw the ruthless businessman that she’d heard of (and dismissed as fantasy) but never seen. ‘I don’t know what you’re playing at, but that little stunt of yours destroyed countless lives. You burned the barn to get rid of a few rats. This conversation is over. I don’t care what you do, but you’ll do it without us.’

‘Tony!’ Steve stepped forward, reaching for the genius.

Bruce stood up, eyes flashing green. ‘Get out.’

Steve hesitated but Natasha knew Bruce meant it. He was about to Hulk-out at any minute. It would be better to get out before that happened. Steve reluctantly followed her back to the lift. As they left the building, Natasha pulled out her phone. She supposed they’d have to come back to Tony.

‘Who are you calling?’ Steve asked.

‘Clint.’ Natasha lifted the phone to her ear. She heard it be picked up.

Before she could say anything, Clint snarled in her ear. ‘I’ll be destroying the phone, so don’t call me again!’


	4. Preparations

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Time for the final preparations.

**New York City, 2018**  
A sleek Audi was driven to the front gates of a bluestone fence that blocked outsiders from seeing the interior. There were plenty of buildings like this in the outer suburbs of New York. They belonged to people who had a lot of money. This one was slightly different though. The window was wound down and Tony Stark tugged off his sunglasses, looking at the small computer terminal at the front gate. After a moment, the terminal beeped.

_‘Retina scan complete. Identity verified. Welcome to the Kaias Boarding School, Tony Stark.’_

The gates slid open and Tony drove through. Did he mention he _loved_ alien tech? Cause he did. He really, really did. And Dani, nor the science division, seemed too fussed on letting him tinker around and explore the tech. He supposed, being raised in a time machine, that Dani knew something about his personal future that made it permissible.

Tony parked and then he headed into the building. He knew the kids were in class so he wouldn’t encounter anyone as he walked through the building to the transport room. Dani and her science division had put layer upon layer upon layer of protection on this place. They had pulled out all the stops so no one considered this to be more than an exclusive boarding school.

Even Fury had never poked his nose in here.

Good thing schools didn’t _have_ to explain why they rejected particular students. Even if they did, the explanation “we’re full” was pretty standard. While aliens weren’t always easy to pick out the reps Dani sent out to potential students’ homes (those whose parents didn’t already work in Kaias), had devices that identified species and were designed to look like ordinary wristwatches – exactly what you’d expect to see a white-collar worker wearing.

Tony didn’t blame any aliens one bit for insisting on their children having a specialised school. If he was an alien who ended up on earth and ended up with a kid, he wouldn’t be fond of them going to a human school. The education system was too primitive and _full_ of fallacies.

The transport room looked like a small linen closet, big enough for only one person. That was a security measure. It also only activated when only one person was inside it. That way, as Dani said, no one could force their way into the base using duress if they did actually manage to get into the school.

Tony hadn’t seen anything, but he expected there to be an evacuation plan for the students and staff should such a thing ever happen (likely several).

Tony stepped in and closed the door. He knocked on the back wall three times. A panel slid open and a small spittle cup was extended. Tony leaned over and spat into it. The cup retracted and the panel slid closed. Funny thing. Fingerprints could be copied and passwords could be stolen so the defences of Kaias used DNA scanning of a far more sophisticated nature.

Saliva carried DNA, and it was nearly impossible to replicate it. For Earth, it was impossible to replicate it. The analysis was prepared for stolen saliva though and it also scanned how fresh the saliva was. Did it come directly from the person’s mouth, or was it carried in a tube?

The alien AI spoke. _‘DNA analysis complete. Identity verified. Stark, Anthony Edward. Please standby for teleport.’_

This, Dani had explained, was the most dangerous part. Teleports could be intercepted. Even with all the technology at her disposal, Dani could only do so much on that front. It was something Tony bore in mind every time the teleport activated and took him to the base at the bottom of the ocean.

Still, there was no one on Earth that could and would – Dani was certain of that.

It still made Tony a bit paranoid.

‘That’s good,’ Dani had said when he’d told her. ‘You’ll live longer then.’

The teleport activated.

***

The observation deck was lined with several people who had, over the past six years, been permitted access to the Kaias Foundation base – as well as Kaias scientists and several UNIT representatives. Among the UNIT soldiers was Clint Barton, who had been found to be quite a good soldier as long as his family was safe. Down in the lab, Tony Stark worked alongside Bruce Banner, and Reed and Susan Richards on the final tests.

Carol Danvers and Rhodey stood with Dani, watching from the deck. Johnny Storm was slumped in a chair not far away. Ben Grimm was standing at the observation window with his arms folded across his chest. The Defenders were also present, only Matt Murdock keeping his head down as he listened to what was going on down there as everyone else watched.

‘We ready?’ Dani asked the four scientists into the mike clipped to her ear.

‘Shields steady and holding,’ Tony responded.

‘Solar system radar active,’ Bruce reported.

‘Planetary force fields online,’ Reed reported.

‘All rifts and spacial-dimensional weak points identified and monitored,’ Sue said.

‘Right.’ Dani hit the controls on her headpiece. Her voice was then projected over the entire base. ‘This is Director Singe. As you all know we have seven days until the BFE. In three days, Thanos’s forces will enter human perception range. I expect, at first, they’ll be taken for meteors. In four days, we’ll have enough data to see which country they’ll be closest to when they arrive. In five days, the humans will realise that Thanos’s forces are moving with too much direction and speed to be meteors and they’re heading for Earth. As a consequence, the planet will be put on mauve alert. Please note that, to humans, mauve alert is red alert, so please don’t start dancing.’

There were several chuckles around her.

‘In six days we rendezvous with the Guardians of the Galaxy.’ Dani went on. ‘The Doctor will do what he can, but remember this may be an established event in history. If so, there will be only so much he can do. If you’re confused, consult any of your Level 1 Civilisation colleagues.’ Dani switched the voice projection again. ‘When you’re ready.’

Dr. Stephen Strange stepped into the lab with the Mind Stone in the sceptre. He stepped into position and waited. With his powers, he was able to protect himself from the effects. The other four scientists got into position around the Arc Reactor Shield Generator. With the okay, Stephen fired a beam of light from the sceptre at the shield.

The beam was cancelled out upon impact.

***

 **Time Vortex**  
The TARDIS hummed.

‘Everything in place?’ the Doctor asked.

‘Their defences are online and functioning,’ River said, moving around the console. ‘The bulk of Thanos’s forces won’t be able to get in. With some luck, Thanos himself not touch the surface of the planet. S.H.I.E.L.D. will try to interfere but Dani’s prepared for that.’

‘Good.’ He gave her a grin. ‘Are you ready for your part?’

‘Oh, completely.’ River grinned just as widely. ‘I doubt I’m the only one who’ll get a kick out of it either.’

‘Of course not.’

‘You ready for your part, sweetie?’

The Doctor winked.

***

 **Earth**  
Tony wasn’t surprised that he got no phone call when NASA picked up Thanos’s fleet. While most people (everyone not in Kaias or UNIT) thought they were just a cluster of meteors, S.H.I.E.L.D. would probably be watching them with paranoid suspicion. And he knew for a fact that S.H.I.E.L.D. was making an attempt to rebuild itself.

‘Melinda May used to spar with Romanoff back in the day,’ Clint told them. ‘Only one who could keep up with her. She...contacted me. Looks like they haven’t changed their tactics any. I may have stuck a bullet in her knee.’

‘Well, she should know better than to surprise a sniper,’ Ben mused. ‘What’d she want?’

‘Me to come back to S.H.I.E.L.D. for this thing.’ Clint scoffed. ‘Like there hasn’t been someone preparing for them for six years.’ He screwed up his face. ‘I can understand why both Kaias and UNIT laugh at them.’

Reed nodded. ‘Reactive responses are generally observed in children.’ He frowned. ‘Are you telling me that they’re using the exact same methods they were using while HYDRA was among their ranks?’

Clint shrugged. ‘I guess they don’t know any other tricks.’

‘Probably not,’ Carol said. ‘When Fury approached me back in the 90s, he tried to manipulate me like he did Tony,’ she nodded her head, ‘but the difference was that I had the protection of the US Air Force so he couldn’t disappear me into the Raft when I told him to shove it where the sun don’t shine.’

Tony snorted in amusement. ‘Couldn’t control you. Guess that explains why he didn’t call the one person on earth with experience in aliens when New York happened.’

JARVIS suddenly spoke up. ‘Sir, Director Singe has entered the building and she’s asking to speak with all of you.’

Oh, yeah. Today was when they were calculating where Thanos and his merry band were going to land. ‘Sure,’ Tony said.

A few minutes later, the lift doors opened and Dani walked out onto the penthouse floor. ‘Okay, it’s always New York or London. I dunno why. Those two cities seem to be particularly popular for alien attack. New York had its turn and they’re gonna land in London.’

‘How many people live in London?’ Sue asked, immediately concerned.

‘Over 8 and a half million,’ Dani said. ‘They’ve already started opening the portal for the infantry to charge in before Thanos himself arrives. Even if everything goes according to plan and we manage to take out them, a large chunk of those people will still die.’ She paused. ‘But, we have another option.’

‘You can divert the portal?’ Tony asked.

‘To a small town about 20 miles outside of London,’ Dani said. ‘It’s been programmed to fix on life signatures so we can’t aim it at an unpopulated mountainside or something. We ran the calculations already. And we can only begin the evacuation about two hours before the attack because that’s when it’ll stabilise and stay where it is even if the life signatures move.’ Dani huffed. ‘Added to the fact that the town has a number of crack-heads so we’re gonna get civilian casualties no matter which way you slice it.’

Tony sighed and nodded. Civilian casualties were preferred to be avoided but Dani was right. This guy, according to everyone who knew of him in Kaias, aimed to kill. He was a killer and he was going to kill people no matter what they did. If they could minimise that, it would be worth it.

There were no complaints, but no one was happy.

***

Jack sat in the cafe. The town looked nice enough, nowhere special. Still, these people would have to be moved soon. He smiled into his drink as he considered the situation.  
Originally, the Superhuman Legislation was supposed to be brought out in 2016 – that had been the plan. With the threat of an invasion, though, the UN had decided to hold off for afterwards. Having an exact date had worked well for that. Once the date was over and the battle was done with, a thick document was going to be slapped in front of what was left of the Avengers.

Jack knew for a fact that this was the true point when Steven Grant Rogers would fall from his pedestal. Jack had learned about the pioneer for superhumans when he’d been growing up in the 51st century. He’d spoken to the guy once, curious to see if he really was that much of an arse or if that was just the history books.

You could practically smell the self-entitlement on him.

Jack was looking forward to his retribution.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> BFE: Battle for Earth.


	5. First Arrivals

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> The Guardians of the Galaxy arrive.

Peter Quill drove his ship down onto the planet he’d been born on.

The Galactic Council had told them about the enquiry 6 Terran years ago. So they knew that at least someone on this planet knew Thanos was coming for them. That gave them a starting point to work with. Their timing wasn’t ideal, but the Guardians were all hoping that these guys had spent the last six years wisely.

They seemed to. When they approached the planet, his ship’s scanners picked up two layers of force-fields. One was a rather powerful deflection field. It was the sort of thing you generally saw on planets engaged in interplanetary war, but much stronger than any Peter had seen before. The second one – the outer field – was not one Peter had _ever_ seen before. He came into orbit. Gamora entered the hailing code that Earth’s enquiry had left for the Galactic Council.

‘This is the Guardians of the Galaxy calling Earth,’ she said. ‘Do you copy?’

A voice answered almost immediately. ‘Earth receiving. This is the Kaias Foundation communications branch. Please state the nature of your visit.’

Kaias wasn’t a word Peter was familiar with.

‘There is an intergalactic tyrant coming to destroy your planet,’ Gamora stated. ‘Request permission to enter atmosphere.’

‘Granted. Sending coordinates to rendezvous with the Director of the Kaias Foundation. Over.’

The coordinates appeared on the screen.

‘I’d say they were prepared,’ Gamora remarked.

‘Hm.’ Peter flew down as his ship was allowed through the force-fields and to the location specified. He was surprised to see it was a landing pad of some sort in the middle of the ocean, but he couldn’t recall precisely which one this was. There was a small group waiting on the platform, headed by a dark-haired woman. Peter pulled the ship up and landed.  
When they stepped out, the woman spoke. ‘Welcome to Earth.’ She smiled at Peter. ‘In your case, welcome back to Earth.’

Peter grinned. ‘You’re the Kaias Foundation?’

‘The leaders, yes,’ the woman said. ‘My name is Dani Singe.’ She gestured to the redhead next to her. ‘This is Lassa De’ano, head of the medical division.’ She then nodded to the skinny brunette man on her other side. ‘Jarvissaiondiajan Ces Bejalafannafex – Jarvis – is the head of our intelligence division. One of his underlings answers your hail.’ She then nodded to the blonde woman with the ruby-coloured stone in the centre of her forehead. ‘This is Maz Ekka Dua Ketim, the head of the psychic division.’ She then nodded to the final man, a tall and strong looking fellow with dark hair and milky green eyes. ‘And this is Sark Cotta, the head of the field division.’

‘You’re alien to this world,’ Peter observed.

‘Correct,’ Dani said. ‘Most of our worlds have been destroyed or rendered inhospitable. We are allowed to live here on the condition that we serve to protect the planet from alien threats.’

Okay, that made sense.

‘So you were the ones who sent the enquiry six years ago,’ Gamora stated.

‘That’s right,’ Jarvis said. ‘A few of us had heard of the Mad Titan.’

‘And you weren’t worried about him coming here?’ Rocket asked.

‘We have experience with things that are 1000 times worse,’ Dani said. ‘Sontarans, Cybermen...Daleks could destroy an entire galaxy in less than one standard day, maybe two depending on the size.’ She clicked and a holographic screen appeared in front of her. ‘Right, I’m going to activate the dome and then we’ll descend to the base.’

‘I am Groot?’ Groot said.

‘Yes, we do,’ Dani answered him.

Peter was startled, and he wasn’t the only one.

‘You speak the language?’ Rocket asked.

The dome encased the platform and they started to descend. ‘No, that’s one of the dialects I don’t speak, but I do have a translation matrix working for me.’

‘What is a translation matrix?’ Mantis asked.

‘It’s translation technology used primarily in Level 1 Civilisations,’ Jarvis said. ‘It works inside your head. Once the words in the other language hit either your eardrum or your retina so you can either read what is in front of you or understand what is being said.’

‘That must save time,’ Peter remarked.

Dani just chuckled. ‘Anyway, we’ve only got about 16 hours before Thanos arrives here, by our calculations.’

‘The barrier we saw on the way in,’ Gamora said. ‘But I’m afraid that won’t stop Thanos once he uses the Infinity Stones.’

Dani grinned like a Cheshire Cat and clicked. A hologram appeared in the middle of the platform, showing some kind of device.

‘What’s that?’ Peter asked.

‘In the 1960s, Howard Stark reverse engineered the Tesseract, which contained one of the Infinity Stones, into this machine. He called it the Arc Reactor and it has been powering Stark Industries ever since.’

‘Stark Industries,’ Peter mused. ‘That sounds familiar.’

‘It should,’ Dani said. ‘From 1943 until 2008, it was the most successful weapons manufacturing company on the planet. These days they make technology.’

‘What happened in 2008?’ Mantis asked.

‘Howard’s son, Tony, went to demonstrate a new missile in the middle east,’ Dani said. ‘While there, he was kidnapped by terrorists called the Ten Rings. He received a blast to the chest which imbedded shrapnel into his sternum. Another prisoner, a surgeon, managed to save his life but had to cut out a chunk of his chest to insert an electromagnet hooked up to a car battery to keep the residual shrapnel away from his heart. From there, Tony miniaturised the Arc Reactor into this...’ With a twist of her hand, Dani changed the image to a much smaller device that would easily fit into the palm of someone’s hand. ‘...before he escaped. Then, six years ago, Thanos made his first bid for the planet. He handed his enslaved minion a staff with the Mind Stone inside. When said minion tried to take over Tony’s mind, the Arc Reactor instantly cancelled out the effects.’

Peter was startled again. He’d never heard of that happening before.

Neither had Gamora, apparently. ‘You’re saying there’s a way to stop him in his tracks.’

‘Yup.’

‘And it was created on Earth?’ Rocket chuckled. ‘I’m impressed.’

‘Well, you can tell Tony that yourself later on. He was the one who actually brought Thanos’s impending arrival to our attention.’

Gamora frowned. ‘How did he find out?’

Dani told them what had happened in New York city six years ago.

They stepped off the platform and into the base as she finished.

‘So they ignored the guy that’d been through the portal and seen what was on the other side?’ Peter asked. ‘That doesn’t make any sense! What the hell for?’

‘Probably the same reason Chamberlain believed Hitler in the late 30s.’ Dani stopped as she remembered who she was talking to. ‘Sorry, knee-jerk reference.’

Peter chuckled a little.

‘Anyway,’ Dani said, ‘if we’re generous we can say that they’re unfamiliar with this type of war and need to learn how it works.’

Drax shook his head. ‘No war finishes after one battle.’

‘Right.’ Dani hit an access panel and led them through the base. ‘And humans aren’t exactly a peaceful species so they ought to know that. Which is why I think it’s a simple case of self-delusion. They think they saved the world on that one day, and they like that feeling. Then Tony comes in with the statement that there’s more out there. That means it isn’t over and they haven’t really saved the world – not yet anyway. Rather than acknowledge that, they take the easy way out and say it’s just Tony attention-seeking.’

‘So they don’t believe it because they don’t want to believe it?’ Gamora asked, unimpressed. ‘So what are they doing now then?’

‘Only just mobilising,’ Dani said. ‘They’re gonna be late to the party so they’ll have to sit out.’

Gamora smirked. ‘You’re putting a force-field up.’

‘Figured it was better to contain the damage,’ Dani said. ‘Last time, they only found the place because A: Tony worked it out and B: Clint had been there. Now both of those guys are over here. I doubt they’ll find us before the shots start flying.’

‘This bunch includes Captain America?’ Peter chuckled. ‘I suppose that means his legend is just that.’

‘Yup.’ Dani laughed lightly. ‘Just a propaganda piece built around a real person. Come on, I’m introduce you to the rest of the motley crew.’

***

Thor had come with a warning.

‘We call him the Mad Titan,’ he said. ‘He is known to destroy entire worlds on a whim, and he is now heading for Midgard. We must prepare to do battle.’

‘Is that the mass moving towards Earth is?’ Sam had asked.

‘It is,’ Thor said.

None of them even considered it could be the same thing that struck six years ago.

***

The Doctor dropped River off and then went on to his own part.

The TARDIS materialised – silently, invisible, and tucked into an alcove where no one would bump into it. The Doctor stood at the monitor in the console room and watched the approach to Earth. It would still be another six hours. In the meantime, he had his final preparations to make. That bunch of humans down there, S.H.I.E.L.D. and “the Avengers” had given the perfect example of what humanity was.

You presented a whole room with a problem. Out of everyone in that room, only one or two would actually address the problem before it became a crisis.

This could have been a thousand times worse.


	6. Invasion

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> The attack begins.

UNIT UK were the first to arrive in the town.

The townspeople were quickly and efficently evacuated within half an hour. Then the Kaias Foundation moved in to assist. Computer terminals were set up on the edge of the town. Foot soldiers from both organisations moved around, building barricades and positioning themselves in defensive positions. The ships came soon after.

Among them, the Guardians of the Galaxy came into stasis flight, hovering in place as they waited.

‘How long did they say?’ Gamora asked.

Peter glanced at the clock. ‘Another hour and a half. The forcefeild goes up at the hour mark.’

‘I’m glad they were so prepared,’ Rocket said. ‘Can you imagine what this would be if they weren’t?’

‘This planet would die,’ Drax said simply, completely missing the rhetoric of the question.

Peter pressed his lips together and looked down as the others arrived. Tony Stark. Bruce Banner. Carol Danvers. Stephen Strange. The Fantastic Four. The Defenders. Additionally, there were a lot of British-born human with powers who’d flocked here. There were more people native to the planet in on this fight than Peter had really been expecting. Then again, he supposed most people had better self-preservation instincts than that bunch.

On top of that, the Captain America legend had always clearly been just that: a legend.

After all they said the guy was the embodiment of virtue and morality – ha!

***

 **London, England**  
The chopper landed, and the Avengers departed.

Thor had said this was the place where they’d come through. His sources (Loki of all people!) had said that this was where Thanos would be closest to so he’d arrive here. Steve stepped out and looked down from the top of the building over the streets. There were a lot of people. He would have liked to get them out of the way, but they didn’t have time for that. The portal could open at any moment.

There were always casualties in war.

***

 **UNIT/Kaias Mobile Base**  
Kate frowned as she looked at the data. She turned to Dani. ‘They’re in London?’

Dani raised an eyebrow. ‘That’s a bit more than I was expecting. Wait. Is Thor with them?’

Kate looked at the data again. ‘Yes.’

‘Oh, I see.’ Dani chuckled. ‘The answer is simple, to be honest. The Asgardians aren’t much but they would know where the attack would come first. Even their seer wouldn’t be able to see him here though.’

‘Seer?’ It took Kate a moment to work out what she was talking about. ‘Oh, yeah! Didn’t the Norse Gods have someone who “saw all” somehow?’

‘Heimdall, with the use of the All-Seeing Eye.’ Dani nodded. ‘Problem with the All-Seeing Eye though, is an artefact with a major flaw in its design.’

‘What’s that?’ Kate asked. When Dani told her she lost her composure and cracked up laughing. ‘Are you serious?’

Dani just grinned. She checked her watch. ‘Okay, that’s the half-hour mark.’ She walked across the base to the communications console.

‘We’re on their frequency.’ Jarvis handed her the hand-held microphone. ‘This will project your voice over the whole fleet.’

Dani took the mike.

‘What are you doing?’ Kate asked, having followed her.

Sark grinned from where he was standing on the other side of the computer console. ‘According to Galactic Law, we’re obligated to give them a warning before we kick their arses.’

‘Which saves the Doctor a job.’

They all turned.

Dani grinned. ‘Hey, River. Glad you could make it.’

‘Wouldn’t miss it for the world.’

Dani activated the mike and spoke into it. ‘This is the alien faction which has taken refuge on the planet Terra. This is a Level 5 Civilisation. Under Article 57 of the Shadow Proclamation, you are not permitted to destroy it. If you do not withdraw immediately, you yourselves will be destroyed.’ Dani paused for a few seconds. ‘Go ahead and laugh if you wish. You got one warning, and that was it.’

She set aside the mike.

One of the technicians turned. ‘You seem pretty certain they laughed.’

‘Of course they did,’ Dani said. ‘Thanos is feared throughout this galaxy. And he’s never dealt with any adversaries from outside of it. He’s never been defeated and I just told him if he didn’t bugger off he’d be the one destroyed. Of course he laughed. And of course his followers laughed.’ She smirked. ‘I’m gonna enjoy the look on his face.’

She then trotted over to River and started telling her where she wanted her stationed.

***

The first clue that something was off was when a military convoy entered London with the population of an entire town. Had Tony been there, he’d have looked into where they’d come from and why they’d evacuated to London. The Avengers present, though, just viewed it as a nuisance – more people to protect. Fury had viewed it as something to look at later.

The last time a portal opened, it’d opened over Stark’s place due to the Arc Reactor there so they’d evacuated the London Stark Industries factory, the only place in the city with the technology and lay in wait. Soon a portal would open up and they’d have to fight off another alien invasion; save the world again.

It was only a matter of time.

***

Ten minutes.

Tony watched the clock on the inside of his faceplate. Ten minutes until the portal opened up and the invading aliens started streaming in. Dani had already erected the forcefield. The whole thing was a translucent blue due to the use of the Arc Reactor technology in it. It would not only contain the battle to the town’s boundaries but it would also keep Thanos from breaking through if he came through.

Dani’s old guardian was going to make sure he never landed on the planet.

Tony wasn’t at all surprised at the older man’s involvement. He’d supposed she must’ve learned this stuff somewhere. He was more surprised to find out the details he’d heard. The Doctor (apparently this guy was the origin of the word) had not adopted her in any official capacity and actually hadn’t told anyone he’d taken in an orphaned Presan girl, but technically he’d been her guardian: raising, teaching, and protecting her.

Tony looked at the clock again.

8 minutes.

***

Gamora glanced down at the countdown again.

5 minutes.

At first, Gamora would confess, she thought the Kaias Foundation were being far too flippant about Thanos. Then she saw the files of some of the other hostile life forms from their galaxies. The feats of terror Thanos had accomplished were nothing compared to the likes of the Daleks. The Zygons were terrifying because they could impersonate a person and then consume their flesh. One would never know if they were talking to a friend or a Zygon disguised as a friend. The Nestine Consciousness could animate any and all forms of plastic remotely and then use them to kill – and plastic was a material which was commonly used by everyone no matter what planet they were on.

So why should they be overly concerned about one fanatic, no matter how deadly he might be, who brought an army to destroy with little more than guns and explosions?  
Even if he did kill them, at least it would be relatively quick and painless. And they wouldn’t have their bodies taken and all except their brains replaced with cybernetics. (Prior to finding the file on the Cybermen, Gamora hadn’t been aware that Earth had ever had a twin planet.) It wasn’t that they _weren’t_ taking the threat seriously; it was that they _knew_ how to handle this.

Gamora hadn’t expected to meet anyone who honestly knew how to handle Thanos.

Now she had.

The clock beeped and Gamora looked down.

2 minutes.

Along with all the ships, Peter started moving out of stasis. When the fleet came down, they’d need to be swift. They’d also have to keep an eye out for Iron Man, War Machine, Captain Marvel, Dr. Strange, and Spider-Man while manouvring about. There were a few others that actually lived on this tiny island but Gamora hadn’t been formerly introduced to them.

‘One minute, thirty seconds,’ Rocket said.

‘There is one thing I do not understand,’ Drax said.

‘What’s that?’ Peter asked.

‘Tony told us that the first time they needed a feed on this side of the portal,’ Drax stated. ‘Why is there none now?’

Gamora answered that one. ‘Because Thanos is close enough to use the portal feed on his ship this time around.’

The portal was suddenly ripped open.

***

 **Thanos’s Mothership**  
The Doctor slipped out of his TARDIS.

He’d already mapped out the place and he knew where all the crew were. They were at their battlestations, reading to move in when the portal was wide enough. Thanos evidently liked to move in via portals, especially on less evolved planets. _Well, unfortunately for him, that portal will only get so big._ Dani had ensured that only the infantry would be able to access the surface of the Earth.

So much for an irredeemable savage life form!

The Doctor smiled in pride and hooked a particular TARDIS key around his neck.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Don't worry. I'll explain why Heimdall couldn't see them in either the next chapter or the one after. ;)


	7. The Dome

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> The Battle begins.

Tony spun through the sky,

The laser shots had taken out the first of the infantry. He shot another three aliens off of their speedsters – _Closest comparison humans could make is a speedster,_ Dani had said – and spun to avoid enemy fire. The bastard was quickly taken out by the War Machine armour as Rhodey flew overhead.

‘Thanks, Platypus!’ Tony called.

‘Now you owe me one!’ Rhodey called back.

Tony immediately paid it back by blasting an alien that was attempting to attack his friend from behind. ‘Done!’

‘Smart ass!’

Marvel spun through the air, aiming for the speedsters which kept the aliens in the air. Her blasts tore them apart and sent several aliens plummeting for the ground. Dr. Strange spun through the air, his magic glowing golden as he disassembled the speedsters around him, causing much the same effect: plummeting aliens. Once they hit the ground, the aliens were immediately accosted by the ground soldiers of both UNIT and Kaias.

Tony had no idea what the aliens looked like, because they were wearing armour that seemed to be a combination of skeletal looking and chrome.

Of course this proved no problem for Dani’s field division. Dani wasn’t kidding when she said over 85% of them had super-strength. It was really exceedingly amusing to watch speedsters be ripped out of the sky with bare hands and people beat down other people who, in some cases, were over four times their size. Dani herself had gotten a boost from the Hulk and sailed up into the air.

She’d then grabbed onto the bottom of a speedster, clamped her knees just behind the thrusters, and ripped a whole section of the bottom out. JARVIS had then reported to him that she’d torn out the whole engine. Dani had then used her body weight to lever the remains of the speedster around and bounded off it. She hit a device she had strapped to her wrist. A kind of...space tunnel appeared and she slid down it, coming to rest on the rooftop of a residential house.

It was something to see, certainly. If Tony didn’t know better, he’d say it was an entirely transparent tube slide.

‘Funny thing about those speedsters,’ Dani quipped as she slid down. ‘Great for asserting superior technology and power over whomever you’re attacking. But if they get busted up, you’re screwed.’

***

Loki had spent years being an intelligent man surrounded by idiots who valued brawn over brain.

He’d worked out that something was amiss when the evacuees came into the city of London. It hadn’t been hard to find this place was actually getting attacked. Then, once he began to look for it, the diversion technology had been easy to find. Somebody had been prepared and diverted the attack away from the most populous city on this little Midgardian Island. Slipping away from his thickhead brother, S.H.I.E.L.D., and the Avengers was not too difficult. He made sure, though, that he left an indicator of where he went.  
He could have just let them continue “standing guard” over London, but that was rather pointless. Because the more he thought about it, the more he was certain they would get their stupidity rubbed into their faces should they come here. Loki was vindictive enough to want to see that.

The battle could be seen from a few miles away, and heard from much more. As Loki approached, he took note of a transparent blue dome surrounding the little human township. He came to the barrier and tapped it. Solid. It was very solid. Looking inside, Loki caught a glimpse of Iron Man. _As I thought._ Iron Man had been through the portal. He must have raised the alarm of a further invasion force.

Why, then, had his teammates remained oblivious?

_Unless they refused to listen to him._

That seemed likely. In the short time he’d been forced into their company, he’d noted their hubris in their own limited abilities and their disdain for anyone who was even remotely intelligent. Captain America, for example, had responded to technical jargon by casting a look of ill-suited disapproval at the speaker until they had, as Midgardians said, “dumbed it down” for him.

Loki’s attention was drawn as he spotted Barton speaking into a device. The man glanced at him, somewhat warily. Of course, after their last encounter that was understandable. There seemed to be a difference in him though. It wasn’t just the fact that he was wearing a different uniform either. Another man, with a similar uniform, soon came into the area and stood with him.

Shortly after that, a woman, again wearing a different uniform (this one bearing a K in a circle on the bicep and back), walked out from somewhere in the township. She had long red hair and green eyes. It took a moment for Loki to realise why she looked different. She was from the planet Krysti in the next galaxy over.

The people of Krysti had an inherent philanthropic nature. In the end, it was their downfall. They had allied themselves on one side of a war quite some time ago. Their natural ability to heal others via accelerated cellular regeneration was deemed an enormous asset. The other side had decided to respond by wiping them out. Their instinct to help others had left their own planet utterly defenceless. The word was that they focused on removing a number of their children from the genocide.

This must have been one of them.

‘Hello,’ she said. ‘Loki of Jotunheim, I presume?’

Loki was surprised she’d said Jotunheim and not Asgard.

‘I am. And you are?’

‘My name is Lassa.’ She smirked. ‘I see Dani’s presumption was correct. You were under the control of the sceptre last time you were on this planet.’

Loki twisted his lips in displeasure. ‘She worked that out independently?’

‘She does that. So why are you here now?’

‘Unfortunately, my ox of a brother dragged me into this once he heard the Mad Titan was coming. They are all lying in wait in London.’

‘So we heard.’ Lassa looked amused. ‘If your myth is accurate did you, then, leave indicators for them to come here.’

‘Indeed.’ Loki looked up as Iron Man darted into view again. ‘I presume you were alerted by the Man of Iron.’

Lassa smiled. ‘Six years ago.’

Loki smirked. ‘And those...“Avengers” ignored him?’

‘Apparently, they place more emphasis on being considered heroes than on the plight of their fellow man.’ The disgust in her voice was palpable. To a Krysti, of course, being that self-serving would be the grossest crime imaginable.

Loki looked at the barrier. ‘And the force field?’

‘Designed to keep the fight in one place.’ Lassa pointed to the portal. ‘It was also designed to keep that from getting too big. Anything bigger than the infantry will have to come the long way around and we’ve put a barrier around the planet, using the same principle that stopped you from controlling Tony Stark with your sceptre.’

That meant they had far more hope of keeping Thanos and his forces off the planet than any who’d tried before them. Loki was amused above anything else. He was only sorry that he’d met Son of Stark across the battlefield.

This would be amusing.

***

Steve was fuming.

Loki had given them the wrong place. He’d left while they’d been watching the skies. Fortunately Fury had found out where he was going and they all headed there. There was some small town outside of London that they were heading to. Still, Steve ground his teeth. They wasted all this time for Loki’s games.

He should have known better than to trust Loki!

Thor was uncharacteristically silent.

***

Johnny Storm watched his sister use her force fields to send the invaders crashing their speedsters. They couldn’t see her, of course, but he was long-since used to spotting her when she was invisible. While Johnny didn’t like to kill anyone, he knew the aliens wanted to kill them. If they didn’t stop them, the entire world would suffer.

It was simply a case of the necessary evil.

Reed stretched out, knocking as many aliens off their speedsters as he could. At one point, he stretched so wide they crashed into him and then, with the effect of flicking a rubber band, went flying back and off of their speedsters to the ground below. Amazing what a rubber man could do, Johnny mused as he tossed fireballs at the aliens attacking him.

Ben and the Hulk were really an impressive tag team, he had to say. Watching them clobber, or smash depending on who you asked, the aliens and their vehicles was a terrifying marvel to behold. By now, a number of the aliens had realised that they were getting the pants thrashed off of them and were trying to run for it – only to encounter the barrier.  
Dani’s voice suddenly echoed over the town, using a mike again he’d bet, as she’d noticed too. ‘If you wish to surrender, drop to your knees and put your hands on your heads. If not, please do keep fighting. I want something to still be happening when the Crap Patrol arrives.’

Johnny snorted in laughter.

***

Loki was amused at the nickname. He was even more amused that some of the aliens within his view immediately dropped to their knees and put their hands on their heads. Of course, they were then shot by some of their allies who screamed about them being cowards or traitors or whatever it was.

This was going to be good.

_But not as good as that._

Loki turned and looked up as he heard the roars of the engine of the quinjet, or whatever silly name they had for it, reached his ears. He had a good feeling the whole lot of them were inside and they were flying directly for the town. Loki smirked again as he calculated what was about to happen.

Lassa lifted the communication device she had. ‘You’re in luck, Dani. They’re just arriving.’

‘Goody,’ the same voice responded.

The jet promptly smashed into the force field.


	8. Cap, Meet Dani

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Have some humble pie.
> 
> (It'll probably go right through you though.)

Steve was beyond annoyed.

They’d crashed into a force feild of some kind, which Nat didn’t even see. Steve wasn’t sure but he wasn’t going to dwell on it. Thor ignored his orders to wait and ran out of the quinjet. Annoyed, but knowing he felt a responsibility for his brother, Steve followed, leading Sam and Nat out. Fury and Hill followed. They left the crew scrambling about the plane.

Outside, Steve immediately strode over to where Thor and Loki were now talking. Thor didn’t look as upset as he should have. They were also, apparently, including in their conversation a redheaded woman who stood on the other side of the barrier. There were a lot of other people in there but Steve didn’t pay much attention to them. He wondered how they could get them out.

Thor turned as Steve approached and spoke before he could say anything. ‘These people have diverted the attack from the city.’

Steve looked through the barrier. It was only then he noticed the fighting going on within the borders of the small town. His eyes narrowed as he spotted the Iron Man armour in the fray. What was _Tony_ doing here? Steve then looked at the redhead. He opened his mouth to demand an explanation – whether for Tony’s presence or their interference, he didn’t yet know.

The woman cut him off though. ‘My commanding officer will be here momentarily to explain.’

‘Good.’ Fury assumed command, much to Steve’s annoyance. ‘Then we can work out this asshattery.’

‘Asshattery?’ The word was spoken with a laugh. ‘Who crashed their aircraft into a big blue force field?’

Steve looked over and was startled to see a woman with long black hair, tied into a ponytail,walking towards them. She was wearing sunglasses. Steve expected her to be Asian underneath them. She walked with a confident stride. Steve couldn’t help but notice the damp splatters visible on her clothes, which were all dark.

‘Are you in charge?’ Fury asked, ignoring her jab.

‘One of three, yes.’ The woman slid her sunglasses up to rest on her head. Steve was surprised to see her features weren’t even remotely Asian but her eyes were dark. There was something very odd about them. He couldn’t quite put his finger on it though.

Fury went to ask something, but Thor interrupted him. ‘Why did Heimdall not see your involvement in this battle?’

The woman chuckled. ‘Simple enough, really. Heimdall uses the All-Seeing Eye. It’s an exceptionally powerful artefact with one slight problem. The presence of other psychic powers tends to disrupt it. I have an entire psychic division, which has rendered this area somewhat of a blind spot to your seer.’

What?

Thor frowned. ‘Then I must insist you remove your psychics.’

The woman cocked an eyebrow, like he’d just said the stupidest thing in the world. ‘Let me see if I understand this correctly. You want me to move my psychic division – who are currently channelling to provide the fighting force with psychicly-acquired intel and giving us a distinct upper hand – and have them leave the area so that your seer can see this place and tell you alone what he sees, which is very limited by the way, all the while he just watches like a jackass and doesn’t move from that bloody bridge?’

Thor looked taken aback.

Loki chuckled. ‘He is not good at logic.’

‘So I gathered.’ The woman shook her head.

Suddenly someone sailed overhead. A dark-haired man hit the inside of the barrier and dropped like a stone. The two women looked over at him.

‘What happened, Dani?’ the redhead asked.

‘Headshot,’ Dani said with amazing callousness.

‘You think you got this under control?’ Fury demanded. ‘You just got a man killed.’

Dani looked amused for some reason.

Steve didn’t notice Loki look at the redhead in confusion and that she just held up four fingers.

Steve stepped forward. ‘Ma’am, you have to let us in. You need our help.’

Dani turned a smirk to him. ‘You want me to take down the force field?’

‘Yes,’ Steve said. ‘As quickly as possible before more people die.’

‘You want me to remove this force field,’ Dani repeated slowly as if Steve was particularly stupid, ‘which is not only the only thing keeping the invaders contained but it’s the only thing stopping that portal from growing any larger.’ She pointed up at the sky where a portal, a lot like the one in New York six years ago, was swirling. ‘Yeah, no.’

Steve pressed his lips together. ‘Is there no way we can get in?’

‘If you wanted in,’ Dani said, ‘you should have listened six years ago.’

Steve drew back. ‘What? We weren’t warned about this six years ago.’

‘Yes, you were,’ Dani said. ‘Tony warned the entire world about this six years ago.’

Wait? What? When?

Nat rolled her eyes. ‘Tony would have no way of knowing about this.’

‘Yeah,’ Dani’s voice took on an almost friendly tone. ‘No way he could’ve known there was an armada heading for the planet. I mean,’ she chuckled, ‘he only went through the portal and saw what was on the other side. No way he could have seen them all then.’ Her expression then went completely flat. ‘Oh. Wait.’

Fury grimaced.

Steve frowned as it came back to him: Tony insisting that this wasn’t the end and there were more coming. Everyone else had scoffed and said...

‘Oh, please, that was just one of Stark’s ego trips!’ Nat said with a curled lip.

Dani then gave her a bland look. ‘This coming from the former Russian spy who compromised the entire American intelligence community plus and then told the American Sensate they wouldn’t arrest her because she was too valuable. People in glass houses, Miss Romanova, shouldn’t throw stones.’

Nat’s spine stiffened. She turned her head. ‘Clint?’

Steve looked. He was surprised to see Clint, in a completely different uniform, standing with a small group of others. He just about sneered at them and cocked an eyebrow. ‘What do you want?’

Nat jerked back at the hostility in his tone.

Steve was confused. ‘Clint, what are you doing? If you knew about this, you should have told us...’

One of the others cut him off with a laugh. ‘Don’t tell me they need it spelled out to them?’

Clint smirked.

‘Yes, Clint,’ Dani said. ‘Go ahead. I know you’ve been wanting to get it off your chest.’

Clint glanced back at the battlefield. ‘Right.’ He walked over to the barrier and stood on the other side of the barrier from where Steve and Nat stood. ‘2014. You two decided to dump S.H.I.E.L.D.’s whole databanks online because you found out HYDRA had infiltrated us, rather than call someone like Tony who actually knew how to deal with the situation quickly and without the sheer number of casualties you two racked up.’

Steve opened his mouth.

‘I’m not finished!’ Clint snapped, jabbing a finger at him. ‘When I found out the data had been dumped I went home as fast as I could. My house was a crater in the ground. For a full hour, I thought my family was dead.’

Steve was frozen, trying to find a way to make it better. They’d _had_ to do it! HYDRA _had_ to be stopped! Surely, he must have understood that. He’d lost his family in the fallout and that was awful, but HYDRA had been stopped. They’d won at the end of the day. He couldn’t seriously hold this against them.

‘Then Tony called me.’ Clint heaved a sigh. ‘He told me my family had been extracted and he told me where to find them. UNIT,’ he nodded his head back to the guys he’d been standing with, ‘had been working in tandem with both Tony and Dani here and they’d extracted every civilian they could find. It was you two that put my family in danger. It was S.H.I.E.L.D. that let them be put in that situation in the first place. But it was Tony, UNIT, and the Kaias Foundation that saved them from your fuck-up.’

Steve frowned. So his family hadn’t actually died. ‘Clint, look. I’m glad your family’s all right...’

‘Oh, don’t tell me you’re gonna try and justify yourself!’ Clint snapped, turning in disgust and walking back over to the others, muttering.

Dani stepped in the way of their line of sight of Clint. ‘Don’t insult us by uttering that crap.’

Nat stepped forward. ‘Regardless of any mishaps, you need us.’ She nodded to a group of aliens flying directly at them. ‘Or are you going to tell me you have a better option than Captain America and the Black Widow.’

‘It doesn’t take much to be better than Captain America,’ Dani said, as if she was merely stating a fact. ‘As for the Black Widow...’

Suddenly a woman leapt out from between a set of buildings. She twisted through the air, laser bolts fired from her gun. Every single one of them hit an alien. The way her blonde curls spun around her made it seem impossible. She moved with far more grace, speed and power than Steve had seen even in Nat. There was something...overwhelming about her. Then she landed, alien corpses all around her. Not a single one was left alive. Dani just smirked.

Nat’s jaw was hanging open. Her eyes were bugged. Hill was staring with bulging eyes.

‘The fuck...?’ Fury stammered.

‘Yes,’ Dani said. ‘I am.’ She turned her head. ‘Tell me again, River, what are you a professor of?’

The woman turned around. ‘Archaeology.’ A stray alien silently charged at her from behind, gun in hand. She shot him without even looking.

Wait! She was a _paper-pusher_?! That was impossible!

Fury scowled. ‘You still got a man killed.’

Dani looked down at the man in question. ‘So, exactly how long are you going to lie there like that, Jack?’

The “dead” man suddenly opened his eyes. ‘I was hoping someone would give me the Kiss Of Life.’

‘Maybe next time.’

He grinned and winked as he, unbelievably, rolled to his feet. ‘Promise?’

‘Don’t know I’ll be here next time.’ Dani grinned at him. She then turned her attention back to them, expression neutral again. ‘Jack is more acceptable for sending into high-risk stations for the simple fact that he is immortal. So don’t insult me. But while we’re at it, why don’t we talk about the sheer number of people you’ve gotten killed.’ She cocked her head. ‘Let’s face it: Rogers and Romanoff wouldn’t have been able to do that data dump unless you had allowed it.’

Steve bristled. Nat’s spine stiffened.

‘We had to do that!’ Steve snapped before Fury could say anything. ‘HYDRA had infiltrated...’ He was interrupted yet again.

‘HYDRA had infiltrated a small minority of the organisation.’ Dani glared at him. ‘The vast majority of them, though, were good people who honestly believed in what they were doing. Most of those people had no idea they’d been exposed before they were attacked.’ Her eyes narrowed unsettlingly. ‘I heard what you said to the agents before you decided to take S.H.I.E.L.D. down. Did you really expect them to be able to tell HYDRA agents, who’d been infiltrating them for years by the way, just by looking?’

Steve’s spine stiffened. He opened his mouth, but she cut him off.

‘What, did you think that evil people look evil? Do you think that honest people look honest? You can’t very well be a successful crook with a dishonest face, can you?’

Steve drew back. ‘I know that!’

‘Then why did you expect them to automatically know which of their co-workers, who’d they’d been working with for years, were HYDRA and which ones weren’t?’

Steve pressed his lips together for a moment. ‘Bad guys are always easy to see. They are evil.’

Dani smirked. ‘And what does an evil person look like?’

Steve frowned. ‘Dishonest, cruel. They look evil.’

‘Wow.’ Her voice dripped with sarcasm. ‘How profound.’ She returned to normal tone. ‘Seeing as you’re having trouble, let me make this situation clear for you. S.H.I.E.L.D. was, and still is, the most laughable of all the organisations claiming to defend against alien threat. And they were certainly the most useless. In the end, they were infiltrated by one of the oldest terrorist organisation in the world and then, when they build themselves up again, they use the exact same methods they were infiltrated under.’

Fury’s spine stiffened.

Dani turned and looked at Sam. ‘You’re just a glorified cheerleader.’ She then turned to Nat. ‘You.’ She pointed at her.

Nat lifted her chin and narrowed her eyes.

‘You exposed countless men, women, and children to the oldest terrorist organisation on the earth right now and then claimed you were too valuable to lose. You seem to like prattling on about Tony’s ego but let’s look at the facts, shall we? Tony was a legal weapons manufacturer before turning to technology. You were just an assassin who killed anyone you were pointed at: before and after S.H.I.E.L.D. Tony took a million-dollar American company and turned it into a multi-billion-dollar international one. You seem under the impression that it’s easy, and it isn’t. You on the other hand, were part of a Russian program which had not been changed or improved since before the sex revolution and yet still calls itself the most prestigious in the world.’ She inclined her head. ‘There there’s that bloody disaster of a personality profile you did on Tony. Black Widows are trained to infiltrate and kill, but empathy was the last thing they wanted you to have. Tell me, did you ever actually study psychology in any sort of depth?’

Nat bristled. ‘Of course I did.’

‘She did a basic course in S.H.I.E.L.D.,’ Clint called to Dani.

‘So, no,’ Dani said. ‘You didn’t. Do you know what the neurosurgeon said about that personality profile you made on him?’

Jack smirked. ‘I believe, at first, he thought it was a joke.’

Dani chuckled. ‘That’s because even a novice wouldn’t consider profiling a man suffering from heavy metal poisoning.’ She smirked almost nastily. ‘The heavy metal interferes with the brain too much. He now considers you stupid.’

Nat glowered.

‘Nat couldn’t have known that!’ Steve insisted.

‘It was her job to know that,’ River said. ‘When you go in to make any kind of report or profile, you should be aware of _everything_ that would render it invalid.’

‘Besides,’ Dani said, ‘I rather think goading a man into certain behaviours is cheating, and displays prior bias. I think you went in thinking you already knew who he was and only paid any attention to anything you saw that confirmed it. That isn’t how you conduct a personality profile.’ She folded her arms across her chest. ‘All that is to say that Tony’s ego was never the problem – yours was. Thousands of people died because of _your_ ego. You couldn’t stand that you’d been fooled and rather than swallow your pride and call the one person who could help with minimal collateral damage, you decided to make _everyone_ suffer.’

‘That’s not...’ Steve started to protest.

‘Shut up!’ Dani told him harshly. ‘If she wants to say something, she will. This is not the 1940s any longer. Speaking for people you consider “less capable” than yourself or whatever is no longer acceptable behaviour. It’s insulting.’ She turned on him. ‘But if you’re insisting, I guess we’ll give you a turn now.’ She inclined her head. ‘Captain America.’

Steve almost flinched. The way she said his name...like it was something to be scorned.

‘The Paragon of Virtue,’ she said. ‘The Hero of World War 2. And, recently, Man Who Is Incapable of Being Wrong.’

‘I’m not incapable of being wrong,’ Steve said, shaking his head.

‘Then tell me one time you were wrong.’

Steve paused, fishing.

Dani nodded. ‘Allow me to help you.’ She pulled the sunglasses from the top of her head. ‘You were wrong when you dropped the helicarriers on Washington.’

‘We had to stop them from falling into the wrong hands!’ Steve insisted.

‘By dropping them on top of the American capitol. Do you know what the population was prior to that decision?’ She didn’t give him a chance to answer. ‘Over 660 thousand. After, it’d dropped by around about a quarter. Not because of Project Insight either. The people who died were directly under the helicarriers that you dropped. Or they were caught in the shockwaves. But I imagine you don’t know enough about physics to understand how that works.’

Steve swallowed back his shock and disbelief, refusing to let himself be distracted. ‘I know people died, but more would have died if we hadn’t acted.’

‘So they were collateral damage?’ Dani asked. ‘Tell me: were Howard and Maria Stark also collateral damage.’

Steve sent her the most disapproving look he had at his disposal. ‘That was not Bucky’s fault. It was HYDRA.’

She didn’t appear to be affected. ‘So, that’s a yes. They were. How funny.’ She cocked her head. ‘Remind me: who built the machine that injected your body with the serum with the safest possible concentration? Who constructed your suit? Who built your shield? Who flew you to your first mission – which you went on against orders, I might mention? She looked him right in the eye with terrifying intensity. ‘Who _made_ you Captain America?’

There was a seemingly unending moment of silence.

‘And you thank him by concealing the murders of him and his wife. You belittle his son, and act like you’re superior to everyone around you.’ She scoffed. ‘I’ve met Sontarans with better manners. You’re not a hero, Rogers. So stop pretending to be one.’

Dani turned and walked away, her entourage following after.

They ignored his yells that they needed the Avengers.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> The "successful crook with a dishonest face" is actually a Doctor Who line uttered by Tom Baker. ;)


	9. The Mother Ship

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> The Doctor is on Thanos's mother ship. What's he up to?

The Doctor walked through the mothership, unnoticed. It worked as well as it had when he’d first put together this particular form of disguise. No one looked at him as he passed them, despite the sunglasses on his face and the fact that he wasn’t wearing any loyalty insignias. He wasn’t unseen, just unnoticed. And that was what he wanted.  
Upon sending Dani the invasion date, the Doctor had gone to double-check the historical records. It turned out that he did have some work to do in this after-all. River, of course, had been thrilled at the opportunity to show up a woman who went down in history as so egotistical on her skills that she thought she was capable of doing anything and everything – and completely ignorant as to how much she owed to the people around her.

For God’s sake, the woman thought she could make a personality profile with no psychological training. On a man suffering from palladium poisoning, no less. The Doctor smirked to himself as he remembered Dani’s account of the resident neurosurgeon’s response to that. Well, what could you expect? He would be fully aware of what palladium physically did to the brain. And amazed at the fact that Tony could still synthesise an element with that going on.

Hell, the Doctor was amazed!

It just went to show what humans were capable of.

One lovesick fool would not be the end of them.

***

Thanos stood on the bridge of his ship, viewing this small, insignificant planet.

Soon, it would be destroyed, like every other before it. Their pitiful attempts at constricting the portal meant nothing. The portal had simply been opened there because it was physically, the closest access point he could find to his true target. One of their smaller nations was more advanced than all others on the planet.

The final Infinity Stone was surely there.

If need be, he would simply fly down.

***

An announcement was sent over the whole ship.

_‘Attention! We will soon begin the invasion of Terra. Our glorious Lord Thanos has detected the final Infinity Stone in a small nation on the continent south of our access destination. We have encountered the first wave of native resistance. They shall fall like all before them. Our Lord Thanos shall destroy this tiny planet and complete his mission of gathering all six Infinity Stones. Our Master has possession of the Reality Stone, the Space Stone, and the Power Stone. The Soul Stone is under the nation below. The Mind Stone is embedded within the forehead of the synthetic life form known as The Vision. The Time Stone is contained within the relic of the sorcerer Agamotto and currently worn by the current leader of his order. All will be in our glorious Lord’s hands by day’s end. All who wish the view the beginning of our Lord’s triumph are hereby granted permission to travel to the viewing decks.’_

All of Thanos’s followers were such because of their fanaticism. Those who had joined him out of self-interest had long-ago been weaselled out and brutally murdered. All who could do so moved to the viewing decks as quickly as they possibly could. The Doctor leaned against the wall outside the main engine room as they all quickly filed past him. He smirked as they all vacated the area.

Once the hallway was clear the Doctor pulled out his sonic screwdriver. He activated it, checking for security measures that would detect him once he opened the door. There were none. He pointed it at the door. The door swung open and the Doctor walked right in. The one engineer left didn’t even turn around, too focused on his readings.

Thanos was an insane, power-hungry megalomaniac who thought he could woo the personification of death in the universe to love him. Yet, he had no understanding of what her job actually was. Hell, she’d been pissed off at the whole Jack Harkness issue, but she bore no malice to the individuals involved, and that in itself spoke of her attitude towards death as a whole.

The point was that Thanos’s ship had a link to all of the other ships in his fleet. If any went rouge or attempted to escape, Thanos could blow them up with the push of a button. As far as Thanos knew, he was the only one who knew about this particular safeguard. (He’d killed the technician who programmed it as soon as it was done.) But Earth history had actually recorded it, and how it was to be used against the Mad Titan.

The Doctor imagined this meant either he or River told Dani, Dani told Tony, and Tony told the public – a public which would be clamouring for answers – because the Doctor’s name was rather explicitly listed in as the person who had actually defeated Thanos.

The Doctor walked over to the console and made quick work of it. The system was rather simple, especially considering the amalgam of races which would have had their hands on the development of the aforementioned system. It was easy to hack and easy to manipulate the system so he could take out the fleet.

Oh, they’d see a spectacle all right.

Once he was finished, the Doctor simply walked out.

***

The fleet was aligned.

When the first ship exploded, it was followed by the smaller ships around it. It was like a chain reaction of explosions. One after the other, the ships were destroyed in an inferno that an antisocial human would call “like a Mexican wave”. It was really like a wave of explosions, lighting up the space above the Earth’s outer atmosphere.

Then it happened to another ship in the fleet, and all the ships surrounding that one.

And another set of ships.

And another.

Soon the only ship left was Thanos’s mother ship.

***

 **Ealing, UK**  
Sarah Jane Smith stood in front of Mr. Smith, watching the readings.

Behind her, Luke, Skye, Clyde, and Rani waited. The fight had started and Sarah Jane was certain that the Doctor was up on the mother ship, getting right to the heart of the problem as they spoke – so to speak. Knowing him, he was going to announce his presence to the invaders in a spectacle.

‘The fleet appears to be self-destructing, Sarah Jane,’ Mr. Smith reported.

Sarah Jane nodded knowingly. ‘Of course it is.’

***

 **The Battlefield**  
Dani spun through the air, but she still noticed.

Her perception stretched farther than any other species on this side of the universe. Her connection to the TARDIS, forged in childhood, didn’t hurt either. The Doctor had just destroyed the entire fleet. Thanos’s vast army was gone. _All_ of them. The only survivors would be Thanos’s direct crew, and they wouldn’t last much longer.

If it was anyone else, Dani would consider her faith in the Doctor ridiculously optimistic.

***

 **Thanos’s Mother Ship**  
The fleet was gone.

The Doctor strode through the ship, heading for the bridge. There was only one thing left to do now. Of course, again, no one would notice him. Not until he decided it was acceptable for him to be noticed. This was the thing. Most of his trouble came from working out _what_ the issue was. Once he’d worked that out, the rest of the work was easy. And the issue had been written down in the history books. The humans and Dani’s taskforce had dealt with the hard bit. Now, he got to engage his dramatic flair.

He was glad he’d dropped by Dani to pick up a bit of self-protection.

***

Thanos stormed through his mother ship – the only ship left in the fleet.

Either he had a turncoat, or an intruder. Thanos was inclined to think it was the latter. No one would be so foolish as to betray him. They all knew what happened when someone tried that. He _would_ have this planet. No little intruder was going to stop that. Thanos headed to the bridge to scan for any life forms that should not be here.

Thanos stepped into the bridge and stopped.

All of the personnel were slumped in their chairs – not dead, but certainly unconscious. And it looked like they had no idea what happened. None of them appeared to have tried to move. It looked like they’d just collapsed at their stations. _As I thought._ Thanos looked up ahead at his command chair.

There was a humanoid sitting in it.

Although, he could say the male was humanoid, he couldn’t quite pick his species. He looked Terran, but something was off. There was something in the man. Thanos could hear the Infinity Stones he had. The low humming coming from the safe where he kept the Gauntlet couldn’t be anything else. They were reacting to this man. The question was why. Did he have an Infinity Stone?

Thanos looked him over, searching for any trace of an Infinity Stone.

The man looked amused.

‘Hello,’ he said. ‘I’m the Doctor.’

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> If you watch Doctor Who, you might notice that 90% of the time, the most difficult part for the Doctor is working out what's going on. Once he has that, it's all "I got this".
> 
> There's only one episode he walked in knowing exactly what was going on - Remembrance of the Daleks - and he pretty much dictated everything that was done, right down to the bad guys actions. A few times they did dumb things he wasn't expecting (a couple of humans stealing from the Daleks) but those were minor setbacks.
> 
> All that to say, that's why this is so easy for him.
> 
> Also, next chapter, we'll find out how the Doctor moved through the ship without being seen.


	10. The Oncoming Storm

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> The Doctor strikes Thanos himself.

**London, England**  
Wilfred Mott sat in front of the TV.

Dani had called them up quite a while ago, and warned them of the impending invasion. She had told them when and where. She had let them know so they could ensure Donna would be safely oblivious to the events going on. At the end of the day, that was something that the Doctor and Dani had always been very careful about: Donna’s memory.

If Donna remembered, she died

Wilf watched as the news reported the evacuation from a small town a few miles outside of London. That told him it was starting. Sylvia had then picked up the phone, called Donna, and started yakking to her about anything and everything. This way, Donna wouldn’t see what was happening and have her memory triggered.

Wilf might have to have a chat to Shaun later though.

***

 **Thanos’s Mother Ship**  
The Doctor watched in amusement as Thanos seizing him up. ‘What are you?’

‘I am a Time Lord from the planet Gallifrey.’ The Doctor stood up. ‘You wouldn’t have heard of it. It’s out of your travelling capability.’

Thanos scowled and walked over to his Infinity Gauntlet safe. ‘Why come here?’

‘I’m rather fond of this planet,’ the Doctor said.

‘So you’ve come to try and save it.’ Thanos spoke with mocking as the safe opened up and he scooped up the Infinity Gauntlet. Even though it was missing three stones, he did think the Stones it did have would be enough. The Doctor smirked.

‘You haven’t tried aiming that at the force-field yet, have you?’

Thanos sneered. ‘I don’t need to.’ He thrust the Gauntlet out and a burst of energy was fired at the Doctor. But he’d already activated his own force-field. The Doctor just stood there. The energy hit the barrier and was instantly cancelled out.

Thanos drew back in shock as if he’d just stepped into the Twilight Zone. ‘...What?’

‘Most extraordinary.’ The Doctor raised his right arm and flicked the cap up on the wristband he wore. A blue glow emanated from within. ‘Do you happen to know what the cubic device the Space Stone was powering was called? The Tesseract. Half a century ago, a couple of humans reverse-engineered it into a device they called the Arc Reactor. The man who got the patent for it used it to power his factory. Its function stayed much the same for 40 years. Then, 10 years ago, his son miniaturised the Arc Reactor in order to save his own life. What do you suppose he discovered when you sent Loki after him with the Mind Stone?’

Thanos stared, as if only realising who the Doctor was talking about.

The Doctor grinned. ‘That the energy of an Arc Reactor cancels out the energy of an Infinity Stone. Tony Stark had six years to coordinate the idea with others, refine it, and perfect it. This tiny primitive little world is better protected than any other you have tried to destroy before.’ And the best bit? They were finally learning to do it by themselves!

Thanos snarled and made a grab at the Doctor. ‘You will die along with this pathetic world!’

The Doctor hopped out of the way. ‘You’re too late. You fleet is destroyed. On the ground, your infantry is being obliterated. There are force-fields in place to prevent you from ever getting to the civilian population of the Earth – which will never yield. How, precisely, do you plan to go about killing them?’

‘Lady Death will not be denied!’ Thanos snarled.

The Doctor cocked an eyebrow. ‘Do you even know what her job is?’

‘She harvests souls, you—’ But the Doctor cut Thanos off.

He really had no idea. ‘She is part of a contingent that preserves the balance between life and death. Everybody dies, but she doesn’t like them all to die at once because that puts a mountain of paperwork on her desk – I hate paperwork, and I’m sure she does too – not to mention what it does to the balance of the universe.’

‘What do you know of Lady Death, you insubordinate worm?!’ Thanos bellowed, enraged, and aimed at him again. The blast from the Infinity Gauntlet was, once again, cancelled out as it hit the force-field around the Doctor.

‘Again?’ the Doctor asked. ‘Is that all you know? How to hit? You have an awful lot in common with Captain America. He thinks he can get his way all the time by punching his problems.’

‘You talk too much!’ Thanos snarled.

‘Yes,’ the Doctor said. ‘But strangely, people always let me finish. Even when I wasn’t so good at getting out of the way, people just stand there and let me talk. Why is that, do you think?’

Thanos glared at him.

‘Shall I tell you?’ the Doctor asked. ‘I’m the Doctor. If there’s one thing I can do, it’s talk. I’ve got 5 billion languages and you haven’t got a single way of stopping me. If you managed to kill me, I can just regenerate – and I can do this infinite times.’

Thanos snarled. ‘How did you get so deeply into my ship?!’

The Doctor smiled and drew out the particular TARDIS key. ‘My ship,’ he said, ‘has a circuit that allows it to blend into its surroundings. This key does much the same thing to me when I wear it. It doesn’t render me invisible. Your people still saw me. They just didn’t notice me.’ He smirked. ‘A don’t-look-here sort of thing.’

‘You bastard!’

This time when Thanos dived, the Doctor not only jumped out of the way – he bolted out of the door. As he ran, a furious tyrant on his heels (what else was new?), the Doctor pulled out his sonic screwdriver and depressed the button. He’d taken the time to set it while he’d been waiting on this idiot.

The computers began to explode behind him.

The ship moved directly over this side of the portal.

***

 **The Battlefield, Earth**  
Tony landed and lowered the helmet.

Rhodey landed on one side of him, Carol on the other. The others landed or walked into the area. Dani stood with her hands in her pockets, next to Kate Stewart. The survivors of the battle had been forced to their knees, directly under the portal. Kate’s soldiers and Dani’s field division were holding guns up to keep them in place. In the meantime, the injured had made their way over to the medics – both UNIT and Kaias – and the rest of Dani’s taskforce, and Kate’s scientific division, were gathering up the alien debris, using both their eyes and various pieces of scanning equipment to find them.

If the dramatic flair hadn’t been observed in her, it would be assumed that Dani was making a power-play.

‘So what now?’ the leader of the infantry (the one left alive) hissed. ‘You’re going to have us stood up and shot? Interrogate us for information? It’s far too—’

‘Oh, don’t be dull.’ Dani waved it off with all the talent of a movie star. ‘You’re on your knees, because I just told you to get on your knees, and we already have all the information we need. No, we won’t interrogate you.’

‘How’d you do that?’ Star Lord asked, deactivating his own helmet.

‘Tell you later,’ Dani said.

‘So, why did we gather them here?’ Kate asked.

Dani grinned. ‘I thought it would make for a good laugh.’

‘What do you mean?’ Gamora asked.

Dani looked up. Not a moment later. A large purple body tumbled down through the portal and plummeted towards the ground. All present who recognised him stared in disbelief. The Mad Titan landed with a curse – right on top of his infantry. A portion of them instantly screamed as his weight came down on them completely. Still...the image of the Mad Titan dazed and bleeding, and rather smelling of smoke, on top of his defeated infantry earned quite a few chuckled from those present.

‘That,’ Dani said.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Rule #1: The Doctor lies.
> 
> The check-in on Wilf is partially a whovian extra and partially the question "how would they keep Donna from seeing this?"


	11. The End of a Tyrant

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> The Doctor puts in end to Thanos's reign.

Dani waited until Thanos lifted his head to glare at her. She then gave him a toothy grin. ‘And you thought I was bluffing!’

Tony chuckled to himself.

‘Okay,’ Rocket said. ‘I’ll bite. _How_?’

‘The Doctor constantly goes around saving planets all over the universe,’ Dani said. ‘I would go so far as to call him one of the most powerful time-space-bound beings in existence. He hasn’t been bested since before he left his home planet. Like I said, Thanos may be a massive threat here, but out in the rest of the universe he’s small potatoes.’

Thanos snarled.

‘Yeah, yeah,’ Dani said. ‘Snarl all you like. Doesn’t make it less true.’

Thanos thrust his hand out at her...and froze. The Gauntlet was gone. Dani smirked. A sound eched around them. It the familiar wheezing, groaning, grinding noise that she had grown up with. The breeze picked up and Dani turned her head slightly. The Guardians stared in disbelief and confusion while many others (who’d heard of the Doctor, but never seen him) stared in awe and/or anticipation. A few of the others were watching curiously (including Tony, Bruce, and Stephen).

Back at the barrier’s edge (a lot of buildings had been knocked down so the Crap Patrol could move around and see what was going on), most of the people standing there were staring in disbelief and outrage. Dani almost laughed when she saw the calculation on the faces of Nick Fury and Natasha Romanoff. Oh, they could try but the Doctor would leave them beaten and humiliated.

The TARDIS materialised. The door opened and the Doctor stepped out. In his hand, he held the Infinity Gauntlet. The aliens and UNIT operatives around him applauded. River walked over to him. ‘Hello, sweetie. Have fun?’ She took the Gauntlet from him.

‘Bit boring to be honest,’ the Doctor said. ‘I expected more of a challenge.’ He began digging through his pockets.

‘Her husband?’ Dr. Strange asked.

‘Yup,’ Dani said. She viewed the device – a bulky gun of some sort – with some curiosity. ‘What’s that supposed to be?’

Quill looked at her incredulously. ‘I’d think you’d know a gun when you saw one.’

Dani smirked. ‘The Doctor does not use weapons.’

The Doctor held his hand out. River extracted the Space Stone from the Gauntlet and handed it to him. _Oh,_ Dani thought, _I get it._ A particular scent came through the air and Dani looked around. She spotted the person she was expecting walk over and lean against the side of a ruined building nearby.

Thanos pushed himself up, teeth bared. ‘I will tear—’

The person Dani had just spotted spoke up, drawing attention to herself. ‘Thanos, you won’t do anything.’

Thanos looked over, stumbling back and tripping back into the heap of his soldiers once more. Several of the agents swung around and gripped their guns.

‘At ease,’ Dani said. She smiled at the pale woman. ‘Come for the show?’

‘But, of course.’ The woman smiled with her thin lips.

‘Death...’ Thanos struggled. ‘Do not be distraught, my dear. I can ammend this!’

Several of the aliens and humans alike looked around at each other.

Tony was the first one to vocalise it. ‘You’re kidding, right?’ He got no answer. ‘You mean to say that all of this,’ he made a circular motion with his hands, ‘you made an entire galaxy scared of you, was just to impress a _girl_?’

Thanos looked indignant.

Death interrupted him before he could say anything. ‘Regrettably, yes.’

And the indignation turned to shock.

Rhodey tipped his head back. ‘Oh, my God...’ he groaned.

There were several sniggers among those present.

‘So, exactly how much work has he given you?’ River asked.

‘I have at least five mountains of paperwork on my desk,’ Death stated with a bland tone.

It was Tony’s turn to groan.

Thanos stared, his jaw working for a moment. ‘...Work?’

‘I told you,’ the Doctor said. ‘You don’t know what she actually does. The job of the personification of death in the universe is not only to ensure that death happens, but also to process and regulate death when it does occur.’

Rogers yelled something across to them but no one paid any attention.

...Almost.

Death turned. ‘Captain Harkness?’

Jack walked over to her. ‘Yes, ma’am?’ He gave her a flirty smile. ‘How may I be of service?’

Death smirked, especially when Thanos spluttered. She nodded to the idiots outside the barrier. ‘Why don’t you share with the class what it’s like to be immortal?’

Jack nodded and turned, particularly towards Team Crap.

_I am forever calling them that._

‘Everyone around you continues to die,’ he said, loud enough for them to hear. ‘But you remain. You never die, but you continue to age. Your body will eventually fail and mutate. If you get shot in the head or stabbed in the heart, you don’t get the release of death. You have to put up with that pain – with being braindead or rendered immobile – until your body heals. And that can take months and months. Life is a gift, but immortality is not a state I would wish upon anyone.’

Dani was amused to watch the glorified propaganda piece snap his mouth shut.

Death nodded and turned to Thanos. ‘You have endangered the balance of the universe because you cannot take no for an answer. You have given me a mountain of work and my associates even more. That is the reason the Watcher, Uatu, sought to make Terra the battlefield of your defeat. He knew, as we did, that the Doctor would be the one to end you – which is why we made the agreement with him.’

While she’d been talking, Tony wandered over to Dani. Guessing what he was going to ask, Dani whispered to him. ‘The Watchers are the most advanced race in the cosmos. As the name suggests, they’re supposed to only watch. Uatu is the Watcher in charge of this solar system, but since this is the only planet in his jurisdiction that harbours life he has the tendency to break oath when the Earth itself is endangered.’ She paused. ‘Of course Time Lords aren’t meant to interfere either, and that’s all the Doctor ever does.’

While she’d been whispering to Tony, Thanos had been staring, open-mouthed, at Death. ‘But...but, my love...’

‘Save it!’ Death snapped. She turned. ‘Please do proceed, Doctor.’ She stepped aside.

‘Thank you.’ The Doctor stepped forward, the gun in his hand beginning to glow with the power of the Space Stone. ‘The Infinity Stones are known throughout the universe. Several devices exist to utilise them.’ He smirked. ‘I hope you didn’t think your shiny little glove was the first one – or even the most audacious of them.’ He lifted the gun. ‘But this in particular is designed for the Space Stone.’ He looked at the screen on it. ‘I’ve set the coordinates and now I’m sending you and your remaining followers to a place you can never comes back from.’ He aimed it.

Dani waved her hands and the surrounding forces backed up from the invaders.

‘There is nowhere in the universe I cannot come back from!’ Thanos snarled.

The Doctor smirked. ‘Whoever said anything about _in_ the universe? I’m sending you outside of it.’ He pulled the trigger.

A beam of blue light shot out of the nozzle and encompassed Thanos and what was left of his infantry. The men that had not been knocked out or concussed by having their overlord land on top of them screamed. Thanos himself howled and reached out towards Death, seeking a way out of the barrier that now contained him for transport.

‘Death!’ he howled. ‘Don’t let this—’

‘Have a nice trip!’ Was all she said before she vanished.

The blue light shot into the air.

‘Really?’ Tony asked. ‘That’s all it took?’

‘That’s what I was gonna say,’ Peter Quill remarked. ‘I’ve never heard of anyone having him beat, let alone doing it so easily.’

‘Yeah.’ Dani looked up. ‘Have the right people, and any invasion is easy to repel.’ She lifted a hand to her communicator. ‘Jarvis, the portal’s closed. We’ll clean this mess up and then you can take down the force-field.’

***

UNIT and Kaias removed the alien corpses and tech first. They loaded all of it into trucks they’d brought with them and left with the medical division. Tony, Bruce, Stephen and Wong moved around the centre of the down, weaving through the rubble and debris as they looked for a clear area. Tony had also taken notice of Rogers and co. getting ready to move.

They were idiots but they would realise the force-field would be coming down soon.

The Doctor was hanging around – a man Dani had declared to hate cleaning up – so Tony got the feeling that Dani wasn’t the only one who’d wanted a word with those idiots. Tony would actually be close enough to hear it this time. That gave him far more glee than he was sure he was supposed to have.

‘You said you could fix this?’ Bruce asked as they came to a good spot.

‘It’s easy,’ Stephen said.

With that statement, he lifted a hand and held it over his right forearm. The circular shapes appeared around his arm, but this time they were coloured green. Stephen then raised his arms. The debris suddenly pulled up, reassembling into buildings and houses, and roads. The damage, as Stephen had said, was easy to repair. When he lowered his arms and the green circles vanished it looked exactly as it had when they started.

‘Time Stone, right?’ Dani asked as she, the Doctor, River, and Kate walked over.

Wong gave a wry smile. Stephen grinned at them.

Dani nodded and tapped her earpiece. ‘All right. Force-field down and move out. Take the north-east back road. It’s the only one S.H.I.E.L.D. doesn’t know about.’

Moments later, the force-field came down.

Rogers came charging in, the others hot on his heels. ‘Tony!’ he bellowed like Tony was a misbehaving child who’d run off.

The Doctor, Dani, and River all rolled their eyes.

Just before he came within five feet of the inventor though, Dani hopped in the way. She simply put a hand out and Rogers ran right into it. He jerked back as his nose collided with the heel of her hand and knocked the others over. The shield went flying from his grip. Dani caught it as it came back down. She struck it in the ground and leaned on it.

‘Now, don’t go blaming Tony just because you’re a pack of idiots,’ she said.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> How did the Doctor get the Gauntlet? Answer: He's the Doctor. Just accept it.


	12. A Hero No More

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> The Doctor has his say.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Yup. Apparently, they forgot to ask who Dani was before.

Fury was the first one to pick himself up. ‘Who the hell are you?’

Dani smirked at him. ‘You’re gonna have a cock-measuring contest with a woman?’

‘Language!’ Rogers snapped, pushing himself up.

Dani glared at him. ‘I’m an adult, you condescending piece of shit. I can use whatever fucking language I like.’

Rogers looked shocked.

‘Hey!’ Sam stepped forward glaring at her.

Dani gave him a bland look. ‘Don’t go all Team Cap cheerleader on me. This is England.’ She nodded her head. ‘They have their own superheroes.’

The group of British superheroes were watching from a distance. Dani knew they all looked supremely unimpressed.

Rogers scowled.

Fury stepped forward. ‘Who invited you to come and stop the invasion?’ he demanded.

Dani smirked. ‘The UN. S.H.I.E.L.D. may have come into existence before the Unified Intelligence Taskforce or the Kaias Foundation, but we’re the ones people trust when there’s any sort of apocalyptic event.’

Fury narrowed his eyes. ‘Tone your ego down, girl—’

‘My ego!’ Dani laughed. She turned. ‘Hey, boss, you want to take this part?’

‘Gladly.’ The Doctor stepped up as Dani stepped back. He came toe-to-toe with Fury. ‘I wouldn’t call it her ego. You’ve been rebuilding S.H.I.E.L.D.’

Fury sneered. ‘We know what we’re doing.’

‘You’ve been rebuilding S.H.I.E.L.D. with the same philosophy it was infiltrated under.’ The Doctor smirked. ‘What’s that old saying? Insanity is doing the same thing over and over again and expecting different results?’

Fury looked like he’d sucked on a lemon.

‘Sir,’ Rogers stepped forward. ‘I don’t know who you are but I am the one who stopped HYDRA the first time. Why—’

‘In one of the stupidest moves I have ever seen.’ The Doctor interrupted him. ‘It may be of interest for you to know, Mr. Rogers, that you have seen the end of your era of glory.’  
Rogers narrowed his eyes. ‘Captain.’

‘No.’ The Doctor smirked. ‘You were an SSR experiment, not a soldier. You were first called Captain when you were on the sales bonds circuit, because the name was catchy. You kept it because, by the time you defied orders and went on your first rescue mission, it was a well-known moniker and made you easy to identify. At the end of the day, though, Captain America was a fictional character created around the face of Steve Rogers.’

Dani was amused to see the look on Wilson’s face. He looked like a 5 year old who’d just been told that Santa Claus didn’t really exist. (Which wasn’t true, but the point stood.)

Rogers’ back straightened. ‘I became Captain America because I was a good man.’

‘Good according to whom?’ the Doctor asked.

‘Erskine was looking for a good man to give the serum to,’ Steve said. ‘He tested me and found me to be the only suitable candidate.’

‘Yes, but every history book, including eye witness testimony from the likes of Col. Phillips agrees that Erskine first saw you when you were attempting to fraudulently enlist for the fifth time and decided on you then. What were the reasons they didn’t want to let you into the army again?’ The Doctor clicked. ‘Oh, yeah, yeah, yeah, yeah, yeah! Asthma, sinus trouble, heart murmur, high blood pressure, weak immune system, nervous troubles, and household contact to a tuberculosis fatality.’

Rogers drew back.

‘Tuberculosis?’ Dr. Strange asked. ‘In the 1940s?’ He glared at Rogers. ‘Are you telling me that this idiot potentially endangered the entire American Army during World War Two for his own selfish reasons?’

‘Makes you and Tony from before your respective experiences look like bloody saints, doesn’t it?’ Dani remarked.

Romanoff looked disgusted – probably because they were right and it really did (at least for Tony, as far as she knew). Wilson was looking increasingly disillusioned, especially when Rogers made no move to deny what he’d just been accused of. Instead, there was a defiant and mulish expression on his face.

‘It was wartime,’ Rogers stated. ‘Everyone needed to do their bit.’

‘You were an artist,’ the Doctor said. ‘You could have gotten a job drawing fliers for the war. But you thought that was beneath you. You looked down on any job that wasn’t fighting. And you haven’t changed that much. You still look down on people whose skills do not involve punching things.’ He gestured to the rebuilt town. ‘All of this? We didn’t hit anybody. We screwed up their technology, but we didn’t hit them. Dani, Kate. Did any of your people hit anybody?’

‘I think mine mostly pulled them off their speedsters,’ Dani said.

Kate nodded. ‘My boys had orders to aim for the engines.’

‘So, yeah.’ Dani shrugged. ‘No people; just their gear. And we made sure they were close enough to the ground to not die when they hit it.’

‘Whereas you,’ the Doctor eyed Rogers, ‘have always been predisposed to violence. If you look in the right places, there are testimonies from the people living in Brooklyn at the same time you were. All of them agree that you preferred to deal with disagreements by physical confrontation, which often left you in a wheezing mess. You take away the asthma and all the problems which left you in that state and have you changed? I think not. You still think the way to deal with difficult situations is to punch it. And that is no way to navigate today’s society.’ The Doctor started circling around him. ‘I heard you have a list of things to learn for the modern world. Have you included the current political climate on it? Learning international diplomacy? The Nuremburg Trials?’

‘The what trials?’

The Doctor nodded to himself. ‘Do tell me: how much of that list have you actually crossed out as done and dusted?’

Rogers stepped back and tried to stare the Doctor down. ‘That’s none of your business.’

‘So none of it.’ The Doctor folded his arms. ‘Do you even turn on the news?’

‘Nat and Sam tell me everything I need to know,’ Rogers said with an accusatory glare towards Tony. Dani, Dr. Strange, Rhodey, and Marvel stepped in front of him.

‘So that’s a no,’ the Doctor said. ‘You make a list of things you need to learn for this century, but you make no effort to learn them. You refuse to turn on the news, and expect everyone around you to keep you up to date. You, Steven Grant Rogers, are resisting the 21st Century.’ The Doctor’s eyes narrowed. ‘Yes, I concede that waking up to find everyone you knew and loved dead and gone or nearly so to be a difficult and jarring experience. But refusing to adapt is not going to make the situation go away. Hell, I knew a 17 year old girl who suddenly found herself on an entirely new planet and the first thing she did was adapt to the situation. If a child could do that, what’s your excuse?’

An almost pouty look came over Rogers’ face.

The Doctor chuckled and stepped back. ‘Oh, I see! You _are_ a child!’

And it turned to indignation. ‘I’m not—’

‘Oh, please!’ The Doctor cut him off again. ‘Dismissing dangers for your own selfish desires, tackling problems with your fists, the kind of patronising attitude that led you to admonish a grown woman for her word choice and the glare towards a grown man for not catering to your needs, not to mention that expression you just pulled. You’re either a child, or you’re childish. I’m leaning towards the latter – especially considering the fact that you are physically about 30 years old.’

Rogers drew himself up to his full height. He opened his mouth.

The Doctor cut him off again. ‘Let’s add self-righteous to the list, shall we? Despite everything I’ve said, you still refuse to see your own sets of flaws. You refuse to acknowledge that you could be wrong in any way whatsoever. In fact, you’re offended by the very suggestion that you _could_ be wrong. Righteousness is all very well and good, but _self_ -righteousness is a habit of the self-indulgent.’

‘I’ve never been self-indulgent!’ Rogers insisted.

‘Really?’ The Doctor cocked an eyebrow. ‘And what do you call it when you conceal a double murder in order to protect you old best friend from Brooklyn?’

‘That wasn’t Bucky!’ Rogers insisted explosively.

The Doctor rubbed his eye, as if removing spit. ‘That isn’t for you to decide. He needs a jury of peers to determine guilt or innocence – shut up.’ He silenced Rogers before he could continue his ranting, and went on. ‘Howard Stark made you everything you were. He built the machine that injected you in the safest manner possible. He built your suit and gave you that shield,’ the Doctor nodded to the shield still in Dani’s hands, ‘and he flew you out on your first mission. Without Howard Stark, there would _be_ no Captain America. And how do you repay him? By concealing the murder of himself and his wife. By lying to and verbally and physically abusing his son.’

‘I never—’

‘You hit him,’ Dani said. ‘When you two first met, you hit him. There was a bruise on his arm afterwards. That is physical abuse.’

‘The point is,’ the Doctor said, ‘that you have been known to admonish people for keeping secrets from you – secrets which, in some cases, have bugger all to do with you. But, it’s a different kettle of fish when you are the one keeping the secret. When the secret has everything to do with Tony, it’s perfectly _fine_ for you to keep it from him. Even when it’s illegal and immoral for you to keep that information to yourself, it’s _fine_! That is both hypocrisy, and a double-standard.’

‘A what?’ Rogers sounded dazed.

‘A double-standard.’ Dani chuckled. ‘It means you have one set of rules for other people, and another set of rules for yourself. No one looks favourably upon a double-standard.’

‘All this,’ the Doctor gestured to him, ‘is just you buying into your own hype. You legitimately believe you’re a hero.’

Rogers puffed up, insulted. ‘Captain America is a hero.’

‘Captain America is a fiction,’ the Doctor said. ‘Do you know what a hero is? A hero is someone who’s not trying to be a hero. He’s the guy that doesn’t think of himself as a hero. The hero is the one who looks at his enemies and understands why they are the hero of their own story. Can you tell me why the Red Skull was the hero of his own story?’

‘The Red Skull wasn’t a hero!’ Rogers yelled.

‘Exactly,’ the Doctor said. ‘You can’t. You’re not a hero, Rogers. You bought into your own hype. Too bad for you, your glory days are over.’ He turned and walked away.

‘What is that supposed to mean!’ Rogers reached for him. ‘Don’t turn your back on me!’

He was stopped when Dani grabbed his arm in a tight enough grip that he ought to feel his bones straining. ‘It means our previous conversation was recorded by a couple of curious kids who snuck into the area. I saw them, but I didn’t think it’d help my case to mention that they were there. It’s probably all over the web by now. Nobody recorded this conversation. But nobody needed to. You’re done like yesterday’s dinner.’

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Last chapter will be next week.


	13. New World

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> The natural consequences of the battle follow.

Loki was deeply amused.

After the fight, Dani had asked to speak to him. He got the impression that she was seizing him up through the whole conversation. They she offered him a place in the Kaias Foundation. It was either that or go back with Thor to be locked up again, so he accepted. Thor didn’t understand, of course, so Dani gave him a firm talking to – which let him know precisely how Asgard was considered in the universe – which had him return to Asgard by himself with his tail between his legs, metaphorically speaking.

Loki hadn’t expected much, but he soon found the environment to be an enjoyable one. The staff were all outcast from their own planets and societies, like him, or were refugees from other planets, sometimes even other galaxies. It was hardly a wonder, when he heard some of their stories, that they were able to defeat the Mad Titan so easily.

The Daleks were a particularly harrowing set of stories, and certainly had everyone quaking in fear.

And there was a point in the Kaias Foundation’s policy that in the instance of a Dalek Invasion, no one would be forced or compelled to fight them. People could volunteer, certainly, but no one would _have_ to do it. And volunteers had to be fully aware on the capabilities of the Daleks. It was the kind of consideration for underlings that Loki had only observed in his mother.

Loki had been assigned to the division which focused on intelligence and he found himself to be working with others, developing defences against alien invasions and plans of attack when they did come for the Earth. It was the first time in his life that his cunning and intelligence had been considered a valuable asset. It was the first time he hadn’t been treated like he was lesser because of it, but instead as an equal.

So, yes, Loki was going to stay.

***

S.H.I.E.L.D. and the Avengers (barring Tony and Bruce) were being _crucified_.

As Dani had said, a video of her conversation (argument) with Rogers had been uploaded in the middle of the battle. The recording had actually started a little before they’d arrived, so everyone saw the S.H.I.E.L.D. quinjet slam into the force-field in all the event’s embarrassing glory. Seeing as the town had been surrounded by forest and farmland, the person recording had been able to sneak closer – close enough to get sound on the conversation when Dani arrived.

(Tony came to the conclusion that Dani had seen the kid when her shades were down. When she lifted them, she gave no outward reaction to the effect of noticing that they were being filmed.)

The conversation (argument) recorded got a lot of discussion, both on forums—

_Oh, my God, did that guy die?!_

_Watch the rest of the video. He’s fine._

_Did Cap just tell her to take down the force-field?_

_Well, he didn’t know what it was doing!_

_Dude, there’s an alien invasion on the other side. It’s kind of obvious what it was doing!_

_Are Loki and Thor brothers?_

_I don’t know. Looks like it, doesn’t it?_

_They are in Norse Mythology, at least._

—and on media platforms, like talk shows.

_A clip was shown of Tony Stark giving the warning of an impending invasion._

_The camera cut to the talk show host. ‘That was in 2012. As we can see,’ the attractive young woman said, ‘Tony Stark did indeed warn the world that this was coming six years ago. When it was publically dismissed by those seen as more credible – who have since been revealed to be S.H.I.E.L.D. or HYDRA operatives – we believed them. Can you imagine what would have happened if the UN had also believed them.’_

_‘I do find it strange that the UN were the ones to take action,’ another member of the panel said. ‘This is a peacekeeping organisation that has been criticised as being ineffective on the world stage, and yet they were the ones that got the ball rolling.’_

The info-dump was addressed.  
 _‘We all saw what happened, but the sheer scale of death and destruction was never really known. Is it any wonder that, when his family were casualties in this, Agent Barton decided to leave S.H.I.E.L.D.? It’s just good luck that Tony Stark, the Kaias Foundation, UNIT, and their associates were all so quick to deal with the problem. The body count would have been much higher otherwise. It makes you wonder why Rogers and Romanoff were allowed to walk free after they caused so much devastation.’_

In fact, Tony was currently being lauded by the public and the media as the hero of the day.

They wanted a press conference. Because of course they did. Tony had spoken with both Kaias and UNIT and it was decided that he’d be joined on the panel by Dani and Maj. Patrick Harker of UNIT US. That would take some of the heat off of Tony. And, like Dani said, it was the time when people had begun to acknowledge aliens. It was time for organisations like Kaias and UNIT to step out of the shadows and admit they existed.

So the day of the press conference, Tony sat between Maj. Harker and Dani. He gave the overview of what had happened and introduced the two of them. People weren’t really that surprised to find the existence of the United Nations Intelligence Taskforce, or the Unified Intelligence Taskforce (depending upon your preference). The treaty which formed the basis for UNIT had previously been released online by the UN. So the questions for Maj. Harker were focused around that.

It was the Kaias Foundation that threw them for a loop.

Dani seemed to expect this, and handled it admirably.

‘So,’ one reporter said, ‘you’re saying that aliens have lived among us for years? And with the formation of the Kaias Foundation, their presences were legalised and acknowledged in the form of an arrangement not dissimilar to a work visa?’

‘Yes,’ Dani said. ‘Up until recently, humanity’s...reluctance to acknowledge the existence alien life made your planet a good place for us to settle on. Usually, they could just, sort of, blend in with no one any wiser to their existence. Additionally, this planet is obscure. Historically, your solar system has never had more than a few planets capable of supporting life. Therefore, only three types of aliens tend to come around this area: those seeking a new home, those who have become lost, and those seeking to invade.’ She looked at her wristwatch. ‘As we speak, my people are finalising an official website for the Kaias Foundation which will be free for the public to access. It will go up at 8am tomorrow morning, eastern standard time.’

The UN had already released the reports from the late 60s, 70s, and 80s on both Mondas and the Martians.

‘What about spies? I imagine some alien invaders would try to infiltrate you.’

‘Of course they do,’ Dani said. ‘Our process of weaselling out these people is going to be on our website. When they are found, as you will see, they are treated in as similar fashion as your various governments treat Terrestrial illegal aliens and spies.’

‘How did you get started?’

‘I was orphaned when I was 5 years old,’ Dani said, ‘and then I was taken in and adopted by an alien who favoured this planet in particular. Most of his travelling companions were human and, in the 70s, he worked as scientific adviser for UNIT UK.’

‘The details have been scheduled for publication on the website,’ Maj. Harker told them before anyone could question that.

‘So, when his people went to war when I was 15, this was the place I was sent to. I was sent to live with one of his closest friends and a former commanding officer in UNIT. As I got older, I noticed the sheer number of aliens on the planet, so I decided to organise them. He and the UN helped me work.’

It went on like that for a bit.

Dani walked out of the press conference, though, with the reporters eating out of the palm of her hand.

An organisation made up of aliens was soon accepted by human society.

‘You mentioned civilisation levels to Thor when you pulled Loki in,’ Maj. Harker mentioned on the car ride back. ‘Has ours changed any?’

‘Yes,’ Dani said. ‘Seeing as it was a Terran who got the ball rolling, and the post-invasion news coverage that followed, Earth has been promoted from a Level 5 civilisation to a Level 4.’

‘Didn’t you say Asgard was Level 4?’ Tony asked.

Dani grinned, eyes twinkling. ‘Well, when they first got here Earth was Level 6. See what happens when you decide you’re perfect.’ She paused. ‘Shit! I said that to the wrong people!’

Tony and Harker cracked up laughing.

***

Steve sat in the conference room, scowling.

The medical tests Fury had made him undergo were ridiculous! He was perfectly healthy, thank you very much! The serum had made sure of that. Heck, he’d never even shown any sign of tuberculosis. Fury had said something about asymptomatic diseases and not knowing how the serum would have affected it because there were no notes on the serum or something.

It also annoyed Steve how he was made to sit on side of the large circular table, while Nat and Sam sat on the other.

The door opened and Fury walked in, followed by Maria Hill.

‘Well, Rogers, looks like you’re fucking lucky.’

Steve took that to mean he didn’t have TB – exactly what he’d said from the start. ‘It was a waste of time anyway.’

Fury smirked nastily. ‘Oh, you have it, Rogers. Everyone in your boot camp contracted the disease some weeks after you left and most of ‘em dropped like flies. Due to the trainers’ foresight, they were able to isolate the disease though.’

‘That’s ridiculous!’ Steve insisted. ‘I never had any symptoms.’

‘Did you ever hear of Typhoid Mary, Rogers?’ Hill asked, cocking an eyebrow. ‘She was a cook-for-hire in the 1910s. But at some point, she contracted Typhoid Fever. She never had any symptoms, but everyone she cooked for developed the disease. She was an asymptomatic carrier of Typhoid Fever.’

Steve glared at her.

‘Wipe that look off of your face, Rogers,’ Fury snapped. ‘That Doctor may have been a pain in the ass, but he was right.’

Steve set his jaw. They’d first heard his title when that Dani woman had been talking about who he was and what he’d done. It rubbed Steve the wrong way, really, that everyone was insisting that Tony and the Doctor were the heroes of the day. Steve hadn’t been able to help only because they kept him from entering the battlefield. They hadn’t wanted him to come in and save the people, while they cheated.

It didn’t help that people were insisting that the Doctor (who wouldn’t even give his real name) had been saving the Earth for years and years.

‘He was wrong,’ Steve said firmly.

‘No, he was right. That info dump was one of the stupidest moves I’ve ever seen.’ He spared a glare for Nat. ‘And it cost us one of our best snipers.’ He turned his glare back to Rogers. ‘You did only keep that Captain title because it sounded good, and you did try to enlist when you were a known carrier of one of the deadliest diseases of the era.’  
Steve scowled.

‘Suck it up,’ Fury snapped. ‘You ain’t going back onto the field until we get all your issues ironed out. You’re just lucky that the serum altered the TB you’re carrying to a level that the human body doesn’t respond to it. The first thing we’re working on is that ego of yours. You’re not God’s gift and it’s time you fucking realised that.’ He glared at Nat. ‘That goes for you too.’

‘You can’t do that!’ Steve insisted as Nat tensed, but he ignored her.

Fury glowered at him. ‘Yes, I fucking well can.’

‘My ego?’ Nat demanded, interrupting whatever Steve was about to say. ‘What about Tony’s ego?’

‘Let’s be frank, Romanoff,’ Fury said. ‘Stark _did_ tell us six years ago that there was another invasion coming. We were the arrogant assholes that decided not to listen. Somebody else did and we got left out in the cold. I should have told you this years ago, but Stark doesn’t actually have an ego. Making him think he had to prove himself was just a manipulation tactic. Stark is one of the most brilliant minds of the 21st century. He miniaturised an Arc Reactor, from memory, in a cave with a box of scraps. He used the same box of scraps to build his first suit. He took his father’s American million-dollar company, more than doubled the profits, and made it international. Despite what you seem to think, that ain’t easy. In fact, it’s nearly impossible. It’s time you realised that you hold far too much pride in your own abilities – and even overestimate yourself. Why didn’t you call Stark when you decided to do that info dump?’

Nat pressed her lips together.

Fury answered for her. ‘Because of _your_ ego – and we lost a lot of good agents because of it. I don’t like being made a fool of, so you’re all going to get severe retraining before you even think of going on the field again. One toe out of line and you’ll find yourselves enjoying the luxuries of our specialised cells until I decide to let you out. Is that clear?’

Steve glared at him.

Natasha scowled but nodded once.

Sam said nothing for a moment. ‘Is resigning from the Avengers an option?’

_Wait—WHAT?_

Fury smirked. ‘For you, yes, but you’ll have to give back the wings.’

Sam nodded. ‘Then I resign.’

‘Sam, you can’t—’

‘Shut up!’ Sam looked up at him, anger blazing in his eyes. ‘I believed in the legend of Captain America. I should have realised long ago that that’s all it ever was – a legend. I followed you like a lost puppy and believed everything you said! But the Doctor was right! You resist adapting to this century, you dismissed the dangers of spreading TB to other soldiers during World War II because of what _you_ wanted, you hit a baseline human that you didn’t agree with, and you concealed the murder of the man who made you Captain America, and his wife! And why? Because your best friend from Brooklyn happened to be the one to do it – willingly or not, it still happened.’

‘It wasn’t Bucky!’ Steve insisted.

‘Do you think that matters to Tony?’ Sam demanded. ‘Do you think that mattered to them? Or any of his other victims? Of course not. It only matters to you. You’re not the Captain America I was raised on. That man is just a fiction. _You_ are a selfish bastard. And you can never trust a selfish bastard to have your back. So I’m leaving.’

Steve sat there, speechless.

‘I’ll show you out, Mr. Wilson,’ Hill said.

Steve was too shocked to say or do anything as Sam got up and left. He looked at Nat. She said nothing.

Was everything falling apart?

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Fury doesn't like finding out he's the bottom of the barrel. He's been served humble pie.
> 
> I'm thinking of doing another chapter where we see what ends up happening to Rogers and Romanoff.


	14. The End of an Era

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> All things must come to an end, so new things can begin.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> You asked for it, so here it is: the final chapter.
> 
> Dani was raised by the Doctor, after all.

Like Dani said, the Avengers could hardly be counted as a team anymore.

The only two members left were the most self-concerned of the whole bunch. The Superhuman Legislation was still being debated, negotiated, and amended. Tony had gotten as many voices in on it as he could. Some of them wanted to keep their civilian identities secret, like Daredevil, and quite a few of them had certain concerns and reservations.

For instance, as soon as Jessica Jones heard about Bucky she wanted to meet him. Turned out she’d spent some time being mind-controlled. She had a lot of sympathy for Barnes. Talking to him for half an hour had her coming out, promising to return, and his therapists had observed an improvement in his condition.

‘It stands to reason,’ the main therapist said, ‘that talking to someone who has been through a similar experience is better for him. We can only imagine what it was like, and some things he wouldn’t know how to vocalise. Miss Jones, on the other hand, knows precisely what it’s like to lose your agency. He’d be able to talk to her in a way he can’t talk to us.’

Barnes’s recovery, indeed, did begin making a lot of headway.

So did the Superhuman Legislation.

It was ready by mid-2019.

As Dani’s history books had said, Rogers and Romanoff were completely blindsided by it. Rogers gave off some spiel about how “the best hands are our own” or some such nonsense like that. Romanoff made a remark about “one hand on the wheel” and signed. Later on, during a dinner where they were discussing the two of them and the legislation, Dani made a very clear statement.

‘Romanoff will go back on her word the moment the legislation becomes inconvenient to her. When that happens, I’d like to do something.’

Her proposal was met with a majority approval.

Sure enough, _someone_ let the slightest bit of data on Barnes’s current home slip onto the web (really only telling what kind of residence he now occupied). Romanoff then told Rogers and the man went off half-cocked. It took very little for the signees of the legislation to subdue him, and they were able to keep the civilians out of it.

As Dani predicted, Romanoff tried to use her bites on her own teammates. Tony accidently had them backfire so she got zapped instead.

They were only half-done.

Dani sat in the lab with Tony, watching the security feed of the cell they’d put Romanoff in. They munched popcorn as they watched her access the part of the wall especially designed so that “any mediocre spy could use it to communicate”. Tony’s eyebrows lifted as he watched and listened to Romanoff do exactly what Dani said she would.

‘Okay, I’ll bite,’ Tony said. ‘How’d you figure that?’

‘When she defected from Russia, she became a traitor,’ Dani said. ‘Any communication with her would make any of her Russian contacts traitors by association. I checked. The only contacts she had after that were all affiliated with S.H.I.E.L.D. What do you think happened when she dumped the data?’

‘She became that co-worker that everybody hates but they put up with because they have to,’ Tony said.

‘Precisely. Trust me, manipulative people like her very quickly pick up when people hate them and won’t help them. I knew she’d call Steve because he’s the only contact she has left.’

Dani then had her pulled into an interrogation room and walked in. She said nothing at first. She just walked in and sat down. Romanoff, she knew, was used to manipulating people but she’d never manipulated a whole situation like Dani had grown up watching the Doctor do. And she thought nothing could take her by surprise – prided herself on it, as a matter of fact. Whereas the Doctor liked being surprised.

Dani had been dealing with idiots like her for years.

Dani pulled out a nail file and started on her nails. She didn’t lift her eyes as she spoke. ‘Natalia Alianova Romanova. Born in Stalingrad, indoctrinated into the Red Room at age four.’

Romanoff said nothing.

‘Now, unless I’m very mistaken, the Red Room taught you that your own survival was the most important thing and all you should be concerned with.’

‘What do you want?’ Romanoff asked.

‘Steve Rogers’ whereabouts. Tell me that, help me bring him in, and I’ll let you go.’

Natasha was silent for a moment.

***

 **Undisclosed Location**  
‘You’re certain the information is correct?’

‘Yes. The head of the Kaias Foundation would know she has no one outside of Rogers. I wouldn’t be half-surprised if she let us have access to the information. I think she’s hoisting them by their own petards.’

‘There are still quite a lot of us.’

***

 **Ribe, Denmark**  
Steve sat in the rendezvous spot, waiting for Natasha.

She was the only ally left to him, who hadn’t turned on him or left him, and he trusted her. Sure enough, at the given time she walked in. She pulled off the sunglasses and the blonde wig. ‘Sorry about that,’ she said. ‘I didn’t want to be recognised coming in.’

Steve nodded. ‘How’d you get away?’

‘I hacked the system.’

Steve nodded. ‘Do you know where Bucky is?’

Natasha nodded. ‘I’ll take you there.’

Steve nodded and grabbed his jacket. He shrugged it on and pulled on his cap. Natasha led him through a maze of back alleys and streets. ‘We’re going in the back way,’ she said. ‘They won’t see us coming that way.’

Steve nodded and followed her.

Natasha led him through the last of the alleyways and in through the back door of some kind of building. Steve wasn’t sure what it was and he didn’t particularly care. He moved quickly. He had to get to Bucky and save him. He wasn’t sure who had grabbed Bucky or what had been done to him here but he was going to save him. He would get Tony to chip in if he had to.

Steve moved to the door and kicked it open.

As the door swung open, a strange smell hit him. For a moment, Steve’s head spun. The next thing he knew, he was on the floor, his hands were bound behind his back. He tried to move but his body wouldn’t obey his commands. He tried to yell but his voice wasn’t working. His eyes skated around...and came to rest on Natasha, standing very far back with the woman from England.

‘...be that as it may,’ the woman said, ‘you held up your end of the bargain. As I said, I’m as good as my word.’ She nodded her head. ‘You’re free to go.’

Natasha turned and walked out.

Wait...she’d...betrayed him? She’d lied to him? She’d never broken out but she’d been let out in exchange for helping them catch him? He’d thought she was his friend! With the bitter sting of yet another betrayal, Steve tried to yell at her. All he managed was a pathetic moaning noise. The woman – Dani – turned around.

‘Knock him out,’ she said. ‘I don’t want him squirming when that wears off. He might hurt himself.’

There was a sting in his upper arm.

The world went black.

When Steve woke up again, he found himself in a cell. There were shackles around his wrists and ankles. When he tried to move, they held fast. Steve threw all his weight against the chains. No matter how much he pulled and strained against them they didn’t even creak. Steve gritted his teeth and pulled so hard his limbs began to hurt.

‘I wouldn’t do that if I were you.’

Steve jumped and turned.

Dani hit an access panel and stepped into his cell. ‘Super-strength is not uncommon outside of this planet, and you’re really not that strong in comparison to a lot of other species. Those aren’t even our strongest shackles, but they’ll hold you.’

Remembering how she’d manipulated Sam, Steve reconsidered his assumptions from before. ‘Did you blackmail Natasha?’

Dani barked out a laugh and leaned back against the wall. She folded her arms. ‘Who can blackmail her? The woman has no shame. You just suck at judging who you can and can’t trust.’

‘What’s that supposed to mean?’

‘It means you trust people based not on whether they can be trusted but based on whether or not they agree with you at all times.’ She shrugged. ‘Kinda dumb to be honest.’

‘I don’t do that!’ Steve insisted.

‘Name one person you trusted who didn’t agree with everything you said – except Bucky. You were friends since you were kids, so this behaviour wasn’t embedded in you at that point.’ She waved it off. ‘One person.’

‘Sam!’ Steve immediately said.

‘When did he disagree with you?’

‘When he left!’

‘And that’s when the friendship terminated, wasn’t it?’

Steve found himself fishing for an answer to that.

‘So, not Sam. Got any other bright ideas?’

‘Nat!’

‘And she sold you out. Try again.’

‘Tony.’ Of course, Tony. Tony always disagreed with him.

‘Pull the other one.’ Dani smirked. ‘If you trusted him, you’d have told him about his parents as soon as you knew.’

‘I didn’t want him to hurt Bucky!’

‘So you didn’t trust him.’ Dani nodded. ‘As I said: you base whether or not you can trust someone on whether or not they agree with you at all times.’

Steve drew back. ‘What about Tony? He’s surrounded by yes-men!’

Dani gave him a sceptical look that would have put Tony’s to shame. ‘Have you _met_ Pepper and Rhodey?’

Steve found himself unable to respond to that as memories of watching Tony argue with both Pepper and Rhodey came to mind. Neither of them could be considered “yes-men”. In fact, Tony seemed to enjoy arguing with his friends for some weird reason. It was like being confrontational was the only way Tony knew. Steve scowled. ‘What did you say about Nat selling me out?’

Dani turned her head. ‘You didn’t really think you could trust a Black Widow, did you? Oh, of course you did. She agreed with everything you said.’ She smirked. ‘Funny thing about Black Widows is that they’re systematically de-humanised. They witness their families be murdered at a young age and then are kidnapped and taught by the murderers. They’re handcuffed to their beds every night and the girl that kills all the other girls is the one that becomes the Black Widow. These women are maladjusted and barely even human anymore by the time the Red Room is done with them.’ She stepped towards him. ‘The only thing they care about is self-preservation. It’s been conditioned into their brains. It’s all they know. All I had to do to get her to sell you out was give her the impression she’d be allowed to walk free if she did.’

Steve couldn’t believe it! It had been that easy?! ‘You manipulated her.’

Dani reached up and pressed a hand to his shoulder, easily pushing him back. ‘It’s easy to manipulate selfish people. Your wants and desires are simple; easy to pinpoint and easy to take advantage of. I may be doing something wrong when I do that, but at least I know that. And I don’t do it just to get my way.’ She paused a moment. ‘Do you know about my species, Mr. Rogers?’

‘Captain,’ he corrected her.

‘You never got the bars, you never went to command school, and you got the name as part of your dancing monkey routine,’ Dani stated. ‘Well, do you know about my species?’

Slowly, Steve shook his head.

‘We’re seen as extremely resilient. We can’t be poisoned or sedated. The reason for this is a chemical in our blood. It responds instantly to all foreign elements – not harmful, _foreign_ – and it forces them into our stomachs. Our then stomachs rebel and the elements are regurgitated. Quite a while ago, we found a way to take this chemical out of my blood and make it compatible with many other species.’ She clicked.

A man in a white lab coat walked in with a syringe. Inside the syringe was a clear liquid.

‘There’s nothing foreign in my blood,’ Steve said.

‘Oh, but there is,’ Dani said, taking the syringe from the man. ‘The serum which turned you into this is not a natural part of your DNA.’ She gave the syringe a squirt. ‘It’s a foreign element.’

Steve’s gut dropped. ‘You can’t—’ He started to struggle, but she was too strong.

He felt the sting on his forearm and then Dani handed off the empty syringe. She stepped back. ‘People who get caught abusing their power often have the power taken away.’ Her eyes narrowed. ‘Just ask Thaddeus Ross.’

Before Steve could say anything, his mouth filled. He tried to fight it back.

‘Leave him a puffer when you take the shackles off,’ Dani said as she walked out. ‘He’ll be needing it. Oh, and have him scanned for active TB.’

The serum left his body through his mouth.

***

 **Stark Tower**  
‘What happened to his muscle mass?’ Reed asked, observing the security footage as a tiny Steve Rogers was escorted through a hospital wing.

‘It came with the serum so it went with the serum.’ Dani tossed a handful of chips into her mouth. ‘He’s back to plain ol’ Stevie. And I’m seeing a definite Napoleon Complex there.’

‘Boss?’ FRIDAY spoke up.

‘Yeah?’ Tony said.

‘Agent Romanoff was just admitted to a hospital with several injuries, including spinal damage. All data indicates she was attacked by former S.H.I.E.L.D. agents.’

‘I’m surprised anyone went back to Fury, honestly,’ Rhodey remarked. ‘After what happened last time.’

‘The people he got back were either strong-armed by someone, or were so disconnected from the outside world they weren’t affected by the data-dump.’ Dani checked her watch. ‘She lasted a bit longer than I was expecting.’

Bruce looked at her. ‘Yeah, I’ve been meaning to ask. Don’t you think it’s a bit dark to let someone go when you know they’re just going to potentially get killed by someone else outside?’

‘Oh, it’s very dark,’ Dani said. ‘Worse than that, it’s cruel. But I was careful about who got the information. Romanoff has spent her whole career as the Black Widow thinking herself invincible. That was always gonna bite her in the butt. You’re right. The right person would have killed her. But once that was done, she’s dead. And she has not learned a damn thing. This way, she gets to be helpless and rely on the good grace of her caretakers for the rest of her life. She understands what it is to be a victim, and there’s nothing she can do about it. She sees the true results of being a selfish prick.’

‘And that was your intention all along,’ Stephen said. ‘To make both Rogers and Romanoff feel exactly the redundancy and helplessness they inflicted upon other people.’

‘And that,’ Dani said, ‘is what the info-dump and their self-imposed missions did to hundreds of thousands of people. Makes it much easier for the rest of the world to adjust to aliens – and for aliens to adjust to them – without those two blundering about.’

‘What about everyone else?’ Tony asked.

Dani shrugged. ‘Well, S.H.I.E.L.D.’s doomed to fail. Why do you think Peg told Howard it had to be secret back in the 50s? Because she knew she wouldn’t be able to get away with half the shit she did if she was being held accountable for her actions. Now that people know they’re there again...well, it’s falling apart at the seams – especially after the Inhuman Royal Family found out about people like Skye.’

Rhodey chuckled. ‘I would have paid to see the looks on their faces when Medusa came after them.’

Dani barked out a laugh. ‘Anyway, Sam went back to work for the VA.’

‘What about those twins?’ Tony asked.

Dani huffed and folded her arms. ‘The guy’s been let out on probation. He’s stated he doesn’t want his powers back. The girl, on the other hand, seems to be clinging to her delusions still. Our contact says the doctors think she’s made “wronged orphan girl who must avenge her parents with blood” her entire identity. I don’t think she’ll get out of there for a long, long time.’

Rhodey nodded. He was one of the few Dani had told the true motives for the twins – and he’d agreed with her. Tony didn’t need to know.

‘Well,’ Tony said, ‘at least one of them is getting better.’ He stood up. ‘I guess we have a lot of work to do.’ He looked out the window and up at the sky. ‘There’s a whole society out there and we’ve gotten their attention.’

Dani grinned. _And it’s people like Tony who give humans a future out there._

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> I waited until after everything was said and done to take away Steve's powers because I think it's cheating to do it earlier. I'm sure there's some obscure animal with the same kind of/a similar defence mechanism as Dani has but I honestly made that up.
> 
> I wasn't going to do the Inhumans thing, then I got a mental image of S.H.I.E.L.D. agents being restrained by _hair_. Too comical to pass up. Or maybe I'm overtired. It's really early in the morning for me.


End file.
